Introducing Mary Jane Skyler
by Madman007
Summary: After the events of Sacrifice, Mara Jade wakes up in a world she doesn't know, in a body that is not her own. Yet people try to convince her that she simply doesn't remember her life before an accident. What's going on? That's up to you to find out.
1. Prologue

**Introducing Mary Jane Skyler**

_**Prologue**_

The universe is a vast area. It has its own destiny; its own brand of fate. It creates new lives when old ones have been expired. In this instance, it focuses on a woman recently separated from her physical form. In her particular section of the universe, she had the choice of joining nature in an entirely alternate existence. For purposes of her own, she denied that existence. For now her spirit is free flowing with no focus or aim. Her need is not required in her own world of her time. Therefore, the universe has to place her spirit somewhere in the meantime. Somewhere where she is needed.

The memories of her past will not be forgotten; just not easily remembered. Her spirit is then projected through the continuum onto a planet inside another galaxy far, far away. It is the third planet from its sun. The only planet in its system that is inhabited.

It is time for the new spirit to awaken. Time for new loves, new challenges, and new hopes. This is just until her world needs her back.

Or until the new world drives her crazy.


	2. Part 1

**Part I**

Awake.

She felt her first feeling in the form of cold air all around her. She did not care that it was too cold. She could _feel_. How long had it been since she had felt? She didn't think she had an answer. _Wait, I can _think_. That means I am conscious. _What was her last thought?

_It is done. Don't fight it. Just let go..._

Suddenly, her upper thigh began to sting in a particular place. By instinct, she jerked her hand to it to massage the pain. By the time her hands covered the area, the sting was gone. She opened her eyes to a brightly lit room. Sounds of mechanical beeps could be heard all around her. They were sounds of medical equipment. She was in a medic room. Though, the equipment did not seem familiar to her. _There are no med-droids_, she found herself wondering. Med-droid? She paused at why she would choose those words. She was lying in a bed and was hooked to one of the machines through a thin clear hose ending in a needle going into the inside of her arm.

Needle._ Stang! What did you _do_ to me?_

She looked over at the other side of her bed and saw a figure standing there. A tall man, past middle age with white-grey hair. He wore a white lab coat. What was that contraption around his neck looking like an avant-garde necklace? She had surmised that he was a doctor.

He greeted her. "Welcome back. We thought you'd never come back."

She thought of speech. She could only focus on one word. One word that she felt meant everything to her. "Ben. Where is Ben?"

The doctor looked puzzled for a moment and then said in recognition, "Ah, yes. Benjamin. Well, he'll be along later. I read your EKG this morning and had a feeling you might wake up sometime soon. I had you on alert ever since. I took the liberty of contacting your immediate family first."

Family. Husband. She said her next word with longing. "Luke."

The doctor coughed briefly and said bitterly, "Yes, well, I did say _immediate_ family, but he somehow found out. He's never left since this morning. I didn't think it was best seeing him first." The doctor considered a moment. "It's good that you remember his name."

She muttered, "I...I want to see him. I _need_ to see him."

The doctor nodded. "I understand. I'll go tell him you're awake."

She repeated the name in her mind. _Luke_. She knew the name, yet she could not recall the man visually. Would she be able to recognize him? For that matter, she could not form a mental picture of Ben, either. But, the doctor said _Benjamin_.

_What in kriffing Hell has happened to me?_

That question hovered inside her mind as she saw another figure inside the doorway. He was a heavy-set man with what looked like flowers in his hand. He wore an intricately designed and brightly colored striped button down shirt that barely covered his extended belly. He kept a scraggly dark beard that looked as unkept as his clothing. As he closed in on her bed, he moved–no, waddled, over. He then spoke in the strangest accent she had ever heard.

"Hey, cutie-pie! The doc says you woke up. How ya feelin'?"

She stared at the man puzzled and shook her head with no recognition. "And you are...?"

He gave a puzzled look of his own and replied, "I'm Luke. Your husband."


	3. Part 2

**Part II**

She was too stunned for words hearing the unruly man's answer.

"You really don't know me, do ya?

"You...are my husband?"

"Well, ex-husband. But, I never let a little ole thing like divorce get in the way. Hey, what happened to your voice. You talk funny now." He put down the flowers on the bedside table.

She didn't know how to address his concern for that. To her, she was speaking normally.

Just then, the doctor came back in, saving her from answering the man who claimed to be her ex. "Well, now, have we met each other again for the first time?"

"Not really," was the man's answer.

"What's wrong?" asked the doctor.

"Well, she's looking at me like she ain't ever seen me before. I thought you said she mentioned my name."

The doctor admitted, "She did say Luke. And Ben."

Luke gave a twisted look of straight confusion like he was concentrating. Hard. "Ben? Who's that?"

The doctor looked at look with equal confusion and stated, "Uh...your son." He checked his clipboard and turned a page. "Yes. Benjamin Beau Skyler."

She let the name fill inside her mind. This was the name of her son? And this was her ex husband? She could not shake the thought that there was something not right here.

Luke then replied to the doctor. "Oh, that's right. We just call him Spike."

She looked back at Luke incredulously. "We named our son Spike?"

"Well, yeah. We named him after your family dog. That old rottweiler."

She repeated. "We named our son after an animal?"

"Now, see Doc. If she ain't remembering somthin' like that, how is she gonna remember anything else?"

The doctor added, "I hate to admit it, but you have a point." He paused and said, "Let's try something." He addressed her and spoke to her as if she were in First grade. "What is your name?"

She thought a little too long for their tastes, judging from their worried looks. She eventually found one name she focused on. "Mara."

There was a slight hesitation before Luke seemed satisfied. "Hey, close enough."

The doctor was not convinced. "What is your full name?"

This time she wasted no time in blurting out, "Mara...Jade...Skywalker."

Neither of the men could have looked more dumbfounded.

They kept silent until Luke finally announced, "Well, that's about the craziest piece of crap I ever heard."

She then and there decided to take control. "My turn to ask questions. Where am I?"

The doctor answered simply, "You are at St. Elizabeth's. You've been a guest here for quite a while."

Luke asked, "Yeah, don't you remember me and Lynn and Deke helping you in here?"

The doctor replied, "She's not going to remember that, Luke. She was unconscious."

"Oh," was Luke's only response.

Then she asked another simple question, from her point of view. "What planet am I on?"

That question definitely made the two men scared.

Luke than started ranting. "I knew it! It was aliens! Aliens took over her brain and she ain't gonna be normal no more. I knew this would happen. Gone a year and she wakes up and she still ain't back in her right mind."

"Would you be quiet?" shouted the doctor at him.

She began asking, "A year? I don't remember being gone that long."

The doctor asked in a soft even voice. "What is the last thing you remember?"

She closed her eyes in thought.

_You think you've won...Luke will crush you...and I refuse...to let you destroy...the future for my Ben._

Were those her last words that she could remember? She could recite them clearly but the circumstances surrounding them were hazy. What did they mean?

Immediately, the sting in her thigh started again. She shrieked and again held the place where the sharp pain originated.

She could barely hear Luke remark, "I thought she was kicked in the head."

"She was. And no nurse would stick a needle there." The doctor faced her. "There is no injury on your thigh."

The pain left as quickly as it arrived. She removed her hand to see clean pale flesh. She was beginning to get angry. She asked through gritted teeth, "Where _am_ I?"

Luke then inched closer and spoke to her as she were an invalid. "You are in Alabama."

She repeated, "Allah Bamah."

Luke then said, "Mobile."

She repeated, "Mobeele." She paused and asked her next question in fear, "What is my name..._here_?"

Luke answered, "Your name is Mary Jane Skyler." He then muttered, "Not no Mara Jady Skycrawler.

He pronounced the first name like Mare-ah. She then snapped back at him, "It's Mar-ah Jade Skywalker!"


	4. Part 3

**Part III**

Clearly, the two men were more than perplexed. She heard Luke ask the doctor if she could have amnesia. The doctor took Luke aside away from her to reply, but she somehow could hear anyway. The doctor basically did not have an answer but gave Luke empty answers to make it sound as if he did. How she could hear them from across the room she had no clue. She took the time to look down at her body.

It was thin. Very thin. If she had been comatose for a year laid up in bed in this Allah Bamah, she could she why. She glanced at the strands of hair gliding on her arm. They were the color of an onyx gem. Black.

She muttered something that got the mens' attention. "Red."

Luke came over and asked, "What you say?"

She looked up at him and stated, "My hair was red."

Luke replied, "Hon, I known you since you were a wee tyke and you ain't never had no red hair."

She looked back at the man claiming to be her ex-husband and she decided something right there. For someone who just woke from a year's long nap, she felt she had so much energy. She reached for the needle stuck in her arm and pulled it out with a small prickly pain. She then began the motion of getting out of bed.

On seeing her action, the doctor urged, "Oh, Miss Skyler, I don't think that's a good idea. Your legs haven't been used in a year."

Ignoring the doctor, she finished the motion of swinging her legs over to the window side of the bed. She then planted her feet down onto the cold surface of the floor. She ejected herself out of the bed and stood erect. She glanced at the doctor and said with confidence, "They seem all right to me."

The doctor was astonished. Luke was overjoyed.

"Well, I'll be dipped if you can't stand after a year in bed. I told you I married me a strong woman."

"Yes," she quipped, "strong enough to divorce you."

Luke frowned but the doctor tried to hide a smile.

Just then, she felt a flicker of feeling that wasn't unpleasant. It was joy. Humor. She stared at the doctor. _Did I just _feel_ what he felt?_

The doctor interrupted her thought and warned, "Ok, you can stand. I wouldn't try to–"

She took a step forward with her right foot outstretched and planted it on the floor in front of her. There was no buckling of her knees. She repeated the motion with her left foot. Same. She just took her first steps in a year. She looked up around at the room to inspect it and spotted a door with a long rectangular mirror hanging on it. _The refresher._ She started walking around the men and made a bee line to the door. She did this naturally as if she had walked just the day before.

Luke and especially the doctor were mentally scratching their heads. Could she feel their confusion?

Luke asked, "How in blue blazes did she walk like that so fast?"

"That's a good question," replied the doctor. "Usually, the muscles in the leg atrophy after long periods of no use. I was going to schedule her for physical therapy later in the week."

Luke stated the obvious, "Well, she ain't gonna need no physical therapy. Mental therapy, maybe."

She ignored their words as she looked into the mirror before her.

Her new body.

Her black hair was in tatters and it went down the length of her body to her waist. She was not tall anymore. Her face was missing high cheekbones and her skin was pale white. And her eyes. No longer were they brilliant green as she remembered them to be. They were now brownish in color. She didn't seem to be unattractive. She just looked...plain. Mousy. The looks of her thin body's curves suggested she may have been at one time a dancer. Though, her face could not hide the wrinkles and blemishes that came with middle age. While looking at her new self, she felt a small residue of uncertainty in regards to her confidence. She did not feel weak.

Maybe Mary had. Or Mara. Or both.

Whose feelings were she possessing? _Who was this Mara I think I am? _None of what she experienced since she awoke told her why this was happening to her. She put a hand to her face to touch it. Yes, it was real. She hung her head low, not yet on the verge of spilling tears.

Luke must have seen her slump and came over to put a hand on her shoulder. Once his hand laid on her gown covered shoulder, she reacted. Way too quickly for a woman of her size.

Her instinct took over and she turned directly behind him while grabbing his arm. She bent the arm behind his back and slammed him face first on the mirror. His stubbled cheeks were grating on the mirrors silver surface. She had him pinned.

Luke's shock pounded inside her mind so loud that she wanted to scream. Not because it hurt. Because she didn't know how she was able to feel his emotion. Any emotion.

She looked at her position from behind him and immediately let him go. As Luke turned around to face her, she was examining her hands. Did these really do that?

Luke found his voice and cried, "What the hell, woman. You grow some muscles in your sleep, or what?"

The doctor asked, "Why did you do that, Mary?"

"I...don't know. Instinct. Protection." She sighed and looked up at the doctor. "What is your name?"

The doctor smiled and answered, "I'm Dr. Harris."

"Doctor Harris, I think I need help. I don't know who I am." The tears were just about to flow.

The doctor saw this and assured her by saying, "It's all right, Miss Sky–uh, Mary...Mara. We'll have to run some individual tests and see if there's any physical changes. Somehow I don't think there will be. Then I can refer you to many of the greatest Psychiatrists in the area."

Luke had to remark, "Great. She's gonna be in with all those Elvis and Jesus impersonators, ain't she?"

Dr. Harris had spoken softly up to that point. He spoke very sternly to Luke. "Let me address something that's very important right now. Your former wife was in a grave accident last year that left her in a coma until now. Waking up from a coma isn't like waking up the next day. There are consequences. Mary just showed us that she has overcome the physical ones. Now, it's a matter of finding out how her memories have been affected. There have been some cases of people waking up after a coma and actually becoming a wholly different person. So, this is much more complex than the people who believe they are Elvis or Jesus. If you truly care about your wife, you will shut up and let us professionals handle this."

"Well, I was just sayin'..."

Dr Harris didn't let him finish. "Is Mrs. Skyler here?"

"Yeah, she's in the lobby. Want me to go fetch her?"

"If you would be so kind."

After Luke disappeared around the corner, she felt compelled to remark, "I think I'm getting a grasp on why I divorced him."

Dr. Harris laughed. "And you've only known him so far for five minutes. Taking him down like that was amazing. I've never seen anyone act that quickly, with or without waking from a coma. I don't understand how you could have learned it. You have no military background."

She shrugged. "That's for you to find out. Who's this Mrs. Skyler?"

"Well, I thought maybe seeing your mother would spark some memories."

She froze and went wide-eyed. "I...I have a mother?"


	5. Part 4

**Part 4**

_Mother._

The word lingered inside her mind, not wanting to escape.

Somehow it was known to her that Mara Jade Skywalker had no mother. Or, at least, she never knew her. The confusion she had felt since she awoke was temporarily put aside. She just kept repeating the phrase over and over–_I have a mother_.

Before she could ponder more, a small figure appeared in the doorway of her room. It was an elderly lady who was about her own height wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans. Her hair at one time would have been the same color of jet-black as Mary's, but it was speckled with many areas of gray. From just remembering her reflection in the mirror, she could tell that this woman was definitely a relative. The woman slowly stepped forward looking bewildered at the person before her. Her face was full of relief and her brown eyes full of love.

Her soft voice muttered, "Oh, my sweet Janie. You have come back to us."

Luke came trailing behind the woman and after he heard her words, he muttered quite audibly, "Not all of her's come back in one piece."

Dr. Harris flashed the man a non-verbal warning to keep quiet. It did not matter. The woman ignored Luke's remark. It probably was not the first time.

For what seemed like eternity, mother and daughter stood face to face with no words or movement. Neither believed the reality before them. With a soft motion echoing her voice, the woman slowly wrapped her arms around her daughter.

At first, Mara just stood there arms down while she allowed herself the embrace. She closed her eyes and felt the first feelings of love since she awoke. Mara had felt this before in her past life, though it was rather late in her life. _Better late than never_, she thought. This love she was feeling now was quite different. It wasn't formed or created from nothing. It had always _been_. Mara had experienced this love, too. With Ben. She had given him so much without ever realizing it. Now she was receiving it. A mother's unconditional love.

Was this the missing piece of Mara Jade Skywalker? Mary Jane Skyler had yet to find out.

Mary placed her own arms around the woman and held her tight. Immediately, she felt safe. There was no need for powerful weapons or fancy fighting moves. There was only one word to describe this level of protection. And it was a word that neither Mary nor Mara had said in quite a while. She whispered in the woman's ear, "Mom."

"Yes, honey. I'm here. And so are you."

Luke had to interject at that moment and say, "She ain't the only one in there."

The woman slowly separated herself from her daughter and did not address Luke, but Dr. Harris. "What does he mean?"

The doctor made an embarrassing look after a quick glance of contempt at Luke. He did not want to explain Mary's problem at that time. He did so anyway, bringing her up to speed with Mary's questions and the new name she had called herself.

Her mother took it in stride, almost as if she didn't believe the doctor. "But, she just called me Mom. She remembers me." She looked in Mary's eyes.

Mary answered sheepishly, "I...I only did so because I haven't said it in a long time."

"But, you do remember me?"

Mary could only stare at the woman whom she had just addressed as mother. How could she remember something she had no memory of herself? How could she tell that to this loving woman? Her reply was answered in slow forming tears.

"Oh, honey," the woman pleaded, "that's ok. Your memory will return." She glanced at the doctor and asked, "Won't it?"

Dr. Harris replied, "We still have to run some tests to determine any physical damage. As you can see she is already standing and walking right after coming out of a coma. I'd say you have a strong daughter, Mrs. Skyler."

Luke sniffed in the background, "Doesn't sound like Mary."

Before the doctor flashed another useless look of warning at him, the woman turned to face Luke. She spoke softly but sternly. "I believe that is all that we need you for today, Mr. Wallace. I want to thank you for being here when she woke up. For now I think it would be best if you allow Janie some time with her mother. Alone."

"Emma...," he pleaded.

"No, Luke, please. You were a part of her life once for a very brief time. You chose another life at Janie and Benjamin's expense. I am grateful for your appearance today, but it is time for you to go."

Luke gave a defeating look and just said, "Awwl right. Lynn's gonna be needing me anyways." He looked at Mary and said, "Welcome back, Mary...Mara. Or whatever your name is." He turned quickly and disappeared around the doorway.

The woman turned back to Mary and said with relief, "Such a more pleasant atmosphere without that man's presence." She paused and said to her, "So, you are Mara?"

"I think so. I have her memories. And only her memories. I can't make sense of them. I have no memories of you, this place, or my ex-husband."

"That last one may be a blessing. Trust me when I say he brought you nothing but heartache."

Mara surmised, "And his appearance today is courtesy of his guilt."

"Exactly."

Mara said back to the woman, "I do trust you...Emma."

Emma chuckled. "That sounds so weird coming out of you. And you lost your accent. You speak so much clearer now. Less mumbling." She looked at the doctor. "Now, what can we do to get our Mary back?"

"Well, there are several methods. Some of them are unorthodox, but I think those would be required for this unique situation. There are some professionals I know who could be helpful. They deal with difficulties of memory."

Emma interrupted, "Oh, she has a therapist."

"She was seeing a psychiatrist?"

"I was?" Mara asked.

Emma answered, "She was seeing a Dr. Markham for Depression about a year before the accident."

Dr Harris reflected, "Yes, I know of him. He's good. And very unorthodox. He would be perfect for this."

Mara used the pause to her advantage. "What exactly was the accident?"

Emma looked at her with pity. "Oh honey, you don't remember that either?"

The doctor interjected. "Perhaps we can explain that another time. Mary has been through much this afternoon. Right now she needs to–"

"To what?" Mara snapped. "Rest? I think I've had my share of rest. I think I deserve to know what put me into a ten-year nap."

Emma mouthed the words, "So assertive."

Dr. Harris questioned Emma, "Is that unlike Mary?"

Emma answered, "To say the least, very much so."

Mara quickly cried, "Stop stalling. What happened to me?"

Emma returned to her soothing voice. "Do you remember your love of horses, dear?"

"Horses?" Mara repeated blankly.

Instead of voicing her answer, Emma glanced at a picture hanging on the nearby wall depicting a cowboy riding on a pale Mustang into the sunset. As she glanced at it, Mara's gaze followed.

Mara figured, "Oh, I see. An animal." She paused as she studied the horse. "They kind of resemble neelu on Tepasi."

"Huh," questioned the confused Emma.

Mara looked back at her and said, "I'm sorry. Horses." She took a moment to deduce. "I fell off of one, didn't I?"

Emma smiled. "You're close. You were trying to get _on_ one. A very wild one. It kept bucking and when you fell on the floor, it hit you in the head with its hoof. Deke, your boss, found you unconscious and you never woke up. Until now."

Mara repeated for her own validity, "Kicked in the head by a wild horse." She thought a moment and asked, "What was the horse's name?"

"Oh, something..._Fire_."

Mara's memory flashed. _Jade's Fire!_

_It's my sacrifice, don't you see? The final sacrifice every Jedi has to go through._

Emma disrupted the mysterious quote. "The name kinda tells you the temperament of the beast. Anyway, we had it put to sleep immediately."

Mary looked back into Emma's brown eyes. Like her own. She didn't know where these memories were coming from or what they meant. She had no memory of this life here in Allah Bama. Yet, when she saw the woman before her she realized she was obtaining valuable new memories.

Mary turned back to the doctor, "Let's get these tests started."


	6. Part 5

**Part 5**

Dr. Harris led her to another floor of the hospital. She felt rather exposed with the hospital gown she had still been wearing. She made sure the backing was tied as closed as possible. Mary found herself memorizing the layout of the facility, especially where the exits were and where possible traps could be placed. She wondered if this would be what Mara would be doing in this situation.

The doctor led her to a large room full of strange equipment. He told her there would be a physical therapist in soon to start the tests. He informed her that he would see her in the morning and left her alone.

Mary sat for several minutes before she noticed the magazines on the table next to her. She focused on the words of the cover. They were in Basic, not Aurabesh. She stopped to think of where that word came from. She no longer had to question strange words as they popped into her head. She knew where they came from. Or, _who_ they came from. It suddenly made her wonder, where was Mara Jade from? What country? Or, rather, what planet?

Nothing popped into her mind.

She then wondered, where did Mara live?

This time an answer formed.

_Coruscant._

Before she could contemplate that location, a large woman with a clipboard entered the room and she announced she was going to start her physical. The woman gave no name, yet she had a demanding voice that told Mary this was a routine exercise for her. She told Mary to get on this machine to walk and run, this one to stretch her legs, and this one to test her joints in the arms and knees. In all the tests, Mary had no pain. That made even her wonder how she could move this quickly after waking up from a year-long nap. Her reaction time was lightning quick. Her stamina had extended beyond expectations. Before they started, the woman administering the tests seemed to have no interest in the results. It was like she was expecting them to be as common as the other thousand tests she started that day. After Mary was finished a few hours later, the woman was more than impressed and at one point remarked, "I can't believe you just woke up from a coma hours ago. These results would put a Navy Seal to shame."

"What's that?" innocently asked Mary.

"You ain't never heard of a Navy Seal? The best of the best of the military. My boyfriend's brother is one and he is one tough hombre." She shifted some papers in a neat order and placed them in a folder. "I'll get these to Dr. Harris tonight. He'll see you in the morning. Do you need help in finding your room?"

"I can find it," stated Mary. And she did.

Emma was there in her room to greet her. Mary headed right back into a bed with new clean sheets. She didn't realize it until she was back in the bed that she had been worn out from doing the strenuous tests. As her head hit the new fully fluffed pillow, she was almost asleep.

Emma came by her side and Mary took that time to catch up on her own past.

She asked Emma about Luke Wallace and why would she not have his name if she was married to him.

Emma cleared her throat and explained. "After you finally divorced him, you went back to your maiden name. When you won custody of Spike–er, Benjamin, you had his name legally changed to yours too."

"Wow. What did he do to me?"

"It was more like what he _didn't_ do to you. He had Lynn to take advantage of in that department. Lynn was a big part of it. He was flinging with her even before you married him. Then he left you and shacked up with her a month after the wedding. Nobody blamed you for changing you and your son's name. Especially, the judge. Nobody was surprised you finally did it. They just couldn't believe you took so long to do it. It was just your nature."

"You hinted at that before. Was I that timid and shy?"

Emma considered her words. "You were quiet. Naive. Indecisive . You startled me earlier when you demanded answers."

"Not like Mary, huh?" When Emma gave no reply, Mary asked, "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all. Actually, it's sort of refreshing."

"I noticed you don't have as distinct an accent as others here. More fluid and less...is twangy a word? You're not from here, are you?"

Emma sighed. "That's either very perceptive, or your memory is returning."

"I wouldn't put money on the memory theory."

"Well, you're right. I'm originally from Savannah." She saw her daughter try to stifle a yawn. "I'd better go. You need some sleep. You've been through a lot in the last few hours."

"Try the last twelve _months_," mumbled Mary as she faded.

Emma nodded and leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Good night, sweet Janie. I know you're in there somewhere."

In the time it took for Emma to leave the room, Mary was fast asleep.

* * *

"_That's it, child. Good, good. Your abilities are growing by the day," the old and rough, yet soothing voice echoed back._

_She was looking at him from her point of view. An old man was hidden in a dark black flowing cloak. She could not see his entire face, but she could make out two points of yellowish glowing eyes. She looked down at herself wearing a simple one piece black tunic. She was shorter. Younger. In her hand was a strange cylindrical object. Even more strange was the long beam of magenta-white light that ejected out of the object. And she swore she could hear a faint hum emitting from it._

_She could hear herself speak as if inside an echo chamber. "The remote did catch me a few times. I was focusing too much on my own actions against it rather than gaining control over _its_ action."_

"_Patience, Mara. The Force is not going to suddenly appear. You must work to gain its knowledge. Only those who know its secrets can control its power. Though, I must say, you are excelling much farther than I have foreseen. You shall be a strong apprentice."_

_The beam of light and the sound it produced disappeared and she replied icily, "And here I thought you already had an apprentice."_

_He cackled. "One cannot have too many. You are quick, Mara. You will keep people on edge."_

_Just then, there was a swishing sound and a figure appeared. The man was wearing a dark gray uniform with insignia patches. An officer._

"_Your Highness," he spoke, "there is a matter that Lord Vader requires to speak to you about. I put it through your holocam in your quarters. I believe there is another delay on the Death Star."_

_The "Highness" sighed. "Many times in the past years I have wondered if we will ever have this project finished on time." He turned to her. "Mara..."_

"_I know. Your _other _apprentice awaits," she sneered._

_He smiled revealing poorly kept teeth around cracked lips . "Yes, you shall be an excellent extra set of hands at the Emperor's disposal. In the time I am gone, practice with your levitation. It will help you focus on the objects actions." He turned slowly and limped out of the room with his dark cloak flowing behind him._

_She sat the cylindrical device on a nearby table and turned to a pile of rocks in a corner of the room. She sat on the floor and focused on the rocks. She could feel the rocks' presence in her mind. Once she had them grasped, she saw them lift in the air. Up they went hovering inches above the floor with no support. They stayed in that position until..._

...she abruptly opened her eyes against the pillow. She didn't shriek or sit up at all. Her attention was on one item. And what it was doing, scared her.

The plastic glass of water she used earlier was full of leftover melted ice. It was now hovering six inches above the surface of the bedside table. _Just like the rocks._

At first, she thought she was still in the dream. Yet, she could still hear her own breathing and the sound of her heart beating against her chest was near deafening. There was nothing wrong with her eyes. The room was dim from the first light of morning. No. She could clearly see the glass. Hovering.

As she watched transfixed, she thought of the dream she just had. Was it a dream? It felt so real. It was like she was there.

Maybe Mara was. Mary was not. That vision had been a part of Mara Jade's life. Who was the "Highness"? And who was the Emperor? The same man? He sounded so evil. Yet, seductive. Charismatic. Why did Mara treat him as a teacher? What was a "death star"? Who was this Lord Vader? Was he the other apprentice?

Too many questions with no answers. Perhaps there would be none.

The question at that moment she wanted an answer for was how the glass was hovering in mid-air.

_In the time I am gone, practice with your levitation._

Did Mara Jade have special powers? Had they transferred to Mary? But, this had been the main question since she awoke with someone else's memory. Was she Mary...or Mara?

Suddenly, the door to the room swung open and the lights came on.

Immediately, the glass lost its place floating above the table and it fell to the floor.

A dark-skinned nurse appeared before her with a small device in her hand. She announced, "Wakey, wak–oh, you are awake." She looked down at the spilled contents of the plastic glass. "Trying to reach your water in your sleep? Don't worry, I'll have someone clean it up. I have to take your temp and your blood pressure. Doctor's orders. We don't want you slipping back into a coma, now do we?"

Mary found her voice and her humor. "There are no horses in here, so I think I'll be safe."

The nurse chuckled, "At least you have a sense of humor about it." She stuck a small glass tube in her mouth and under her tongue. Then she wrapped one end of the device around her arm. The other end had a pump attached and she started pumping and the wrap got tighter. She then let it release slowly and then took out the glass tube. "Both readings are normal. It's so hard to believe you were in a coma this time yesterday." She gathered her equipment and said before she left the room, "Someone will be in with your breakfast in a moment."

A few hours later, that statement became true. Although, Mary could not eat much. She sipped her milk and ate a bite out of what looked like a muffin. The sun became brighter bringing in more light in the room. Soon after, Dr. Harris came in.

"Good morning, Mary. I trust you slept well."

"I should. I practiced my sleeping during the last year."

He chuckled and proceeded to announce, "Your physical results were amazing. Especially for a former coma patient."

"So, what now?"

"Well, I have some blood tests to run today. I want to see your electrolyte count and your potassium levels. Other than that, everything else will be mental. You're quite physically fit, which is a mystery itself. Now, this gets more subjective. You can take five experts in this field and get five different theories. I did contact your Dr. Markham, and he very much wants to see you immediately. He set up an appointment later today here in the hospital. He accommodated you for your condition because I didn't tell him yet that you can walk easily. He'll like the surprise. It will give him a challenge."

"Sounds like fun," she replied. She looked down at her loose hospital gown complete with open air backing and muttered, "Do you have an extra dress I can wear?"

"Oh, no, your mother is coming in soon with some of your clothes. Your appointment with Dr. Markham is at 1:00 p.m. and I want to get your blood work in before that." He eyed the mostly untouched plate on the tray. "I see you didn't eat much. That actually will be good for the results. Oh, and your meeting will be in the South conference room on the second floor. There's a map–"

"I can find it," she didn't quite snap at him, but close.

The doctor sensed something in her demeanor and asked her, "Is there something wrong, Mary?"

She sniffed. "You mean other than the fact that I have the memories of a stranger I cannot make sense of. Or that I don't know by what name you should address me. You call me Mary, but everything tells me I am, or was, Mara Jade. I have no memory of who Mary was. I only have what people tell me about her." She paused and added, "Other than that, I'm a picture of health."

"I understand. What I meant was if there was something that happened last night that you're not telling me? You seem even more distant than yesterday."

Without turning her head, she moved her eyes to the spot of the now absent plastic glass she levitated earlier that morning. Despite her unbelievable situation, that incident would even be more crazy to explain. All that she did admit to him was, "I had a dream."

"Let me guess; Mara's dream."

"Mara's _life_," she corrected.

"This sounds like territory that Dr. Markham can help you with. No need to give me details." He paused and seemed to try to find his next words. "We will find you...Mary. For all intents and purposes, you _are_ in Mary Jane Skyler's body. Somewhere buried is Mary's memories. We will find them."

"What if Mara won't let that happen?"

"If I know anything about Mara Jade in the past few hours, it's that she herself has loved a husband and a son. I can't believe anyone with that kind of compassion would prevent you from finding your own memories. Who knows, maybe in finding out who Mara Jade is you will find Mary."

"Thank you, Dr. Harris."

"Well, I have to make my rounds. A nurse will take you to get your blood work as soon as you're dressed." He reached into his coat pocket and produced a piece of rectangular paper. He handed it to her and she took it. On it was his full name. Dr. Alexander Harris. Underneath was a series of numbers.

"You can call me anytime. For anything. My cell number is on there too."

She considered. "Is your wife going to be suspicious of a strange woman calling on you?"

He stopped smiling and looked to the floor for a reply. His voice almost broke when he stated, "My wife passed away three years ago. Cancer. Bad."

"I'm sorry. Somehow, I know what it feels like to loose someone close."

"Oh, I didn't lose her. I know exactly where she is."

Mary tilted her head. "You made a funny."

"I try my best."

"Do, or do not. There is no try," Mara repeated from something triggering her mind.

Dr. Harris nodded. "Excellent advice. Well, your mother will be in soon with some real clothes. And after your visit with Dr. Markham, I may see if we can't release you tonight. Perhaps going home will trigger Mary's memory."

"Wherever her home is."

The doctor reached over to pat her softy on the arm and he said his farewell and left the room.

She looked down at the thick card she was holding with two fingers. She closed her eyes and pictured the card inside her mind. She imagined the card floating in mid-air above the sheets. Just like the rocks. She let her fingers go. She opened up her eyes and found the card resting on the bed sheets. Where it dropped.

Maybe she did imagine that glass hovering that morning.


	7. Part 6

**Part Six  
**

Emma Skyler did arrive soon after the doctor. She had brought with her a duffel bag that seemed to burst at the opening from the amount of contents within. She placed it on the bed in front of Mary. Emma said that she had made up the contents roughly less than a year ago sometime after it was known that Mary would not wake up for a while. For the next several months, the bag had been kept inside this room by Emma in case Mary did wake up she would have her things ready. After several months and with Mary not waking yet, Emma reluctantly took the bag home with her. She admitted it was her last glimmer of hope.

"Of course, as soon as I took it home, you wake up," she joked.

She said it was full of Mary's favorite clothes and possessions. Mary started rummaging through and found a pair of faded blue jeans with all sorts of holes down the legs. There were several undergarments and T-shirts. The shirts were what really caught her attention. She held one up that had a particular design.

"I think this shirt has every color known to Man on it," she commented.

Emma looked over at it as she folded the waded up jeans that Mary tossed aside. "Oh, that's one of your tie-dyes."

"Uh huh. Can we turn the color volume down a little?" She flipped the shirt over and found some lettering in such an intricate style that she had a hard time reading it. "What is...grateful...dead?"

"Oh, my. You must really be missing if you can't remember The Dead. It's only your favorite band. Don't you remember your tour with Terry and Anne in '81? You gals went half way across the country following that tour. You must have seen twenty shows. And when you found a bootleg years later of one of the shows you were at...why, I never heard the end of it. I put that bootleg copy in the bag there with your Walkman, by the way."

Mary dug through clothes to the bottom of the bag to find a small device with earplugs attached to a wire. Under that were a few silver round, flat discs in cases. The earplugs were actually ear speakers and she figured they were for music. She thought of what a fascinating device that would be. "I'll listen to them later. Thanks for all of this."

"It's about time it gets used."

A dark-skinned nurse came in with a small tray of vials and needles with the intention of taking blood. Emma announced her exit but before she left, she said she would come back later tonight.

"Already heard they might release me tonight?" surmised Mara.

Emma shook her head in mock annoyance. "Now, darlin', only a mother should even have instincts like that."

"Good thing I am one," answered Mara.

Emma nodded and said her farewell and the nurse proceeded to take blood. She had anticipated a sharp pain whenever a needle was involved, but this time it was only a small prick of pressure. The nurse finished in no time and Mary changed into the jeans and the Dead shirt she held earlier. She had some time before the meeting so she pulled out the device and the discs. She flipped the opening to the port and entered the disc. She put the mini ear speakers over her ear and found the button marked "play". She started listening. It was basic to her at first. She could never know for a fact, but she had a feeling that Mara was not much of a music fan. If she was at any time, it would have been because it was required of her to become one. Soon the instruments were in synch with the one stringed instrument being dominant. She found she could really listen to this. The song seemed to keep going on forever and she never looked at the chrono while listening to the addictive music. That proved almost a mistake as she kept to listening and just happened to see the chrono just in time to see that she had fifteen minutes before meeting the new doctor.

She shut off the device, placed it on the dresser, and stood up quickly to head to the South conference room. She had memorized the layout from her earlier excursion outside her room and knew exactly where to go.

Soon, she approached the double doors to the room and saw that one was slightly open. She thought she could hear a voice reverberating inside that sounded strangely familiar. She reached the door and slowly knocked.

Immediately, the voice stopped and another deeper voice replaced it. "Come hither!"

She opened the door to see an oblong table set in the middle of a room that barely could fit it inside. Alongside the table were many cushioned chairs. At the far end of the table sat a slightly hefty man of his early sixties. He had short gray-brown hair and wore thick round spectacles. Upon seeing her, the man stood up quickly, obviously in surprise. "Mary! Is that you?"

"Only in flesh," she answered.

"Come in. I thought you'd be in a wheelchair or have someone bring you down."

"No, I can walk on my own pretty well."

"I can see that. Rumors of your paralysis are greatly exaggerated, eh?"

"Uh, I guess."

He shook his head. "I'm just paraphrasing Twain. Never mind. Please sit down. I am so glad to see you. We feared the worst."

She sat in the cushioned chair adjacent to his and she looked down at the papers in a neat pile inside a folder before him on the table. Also in front of him was a smaller rectangular device that she was curious about. She noted the design.

"Ok. Now, Mary. Do you remember me?"

Mara smirked and sniffed. "And _you're_ supposed to be the doctor?"

The man chuckled. "Of course. I will proceed. My name is Dr. Markham. I treated Mary a few years ago after her divorce for Depression. I know her history and her personality, so I can tell you with all professional honesty, that Mary would have never answered me in such a disrespectful way."

"I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't know what I'm saying."

"Or why?" She nodded. He went on. "And don't apologize. You don't have to apologize for your personality."

"Even if it's not my own?"

"That's what I intend to find out. Now, I know you've been asked this countless times in the past hours, but I want you to be very honest with me. How are you feeling?"

She sighed. "Physically, I'm fine. Better than fine. Seems I have strength I didn't have before. Mentally, well...it depends on who you're asking."

"With whom am I addressing now?"

"The name that keeps coming up when I'm asked that is Mara Jade Skywalker."

"And you have no memory of Mary Jane Skyler?"

"None."

"You do realize the initials and the name are similar?"

"I noticed."

"And your accent is gone. More defined and clearer now."

Mara considered and asked bluntly, "Was that how Mary sounded before the accident?" She motioned to the device on the table.

"How what sounded?"

"Don't play dumb. That must be some kind of recording device and you were playing a sound clip of Mary speaking, were you not?"

Dr. Markham looked as if he had been caught doing something illegal. He was clearly on edge at that moment, not expecting her to even mention the sound clip.

She thought back to the dream. _You will keep people on edge_.

Dr. Markham smiled eventually and said, "Yes, that was a recording of a session with Mary Jane Skyler. Impressive display of attention to detail. Another aspect that is very much unlike Mary. Anything else you observed while you entered?"

Mara looked him straight in his eyes. "You use Death Sticks...or, at least, what constitutes as Death Sticks here. You've been fiddling with that pen in your hand as if your life depended on it."

He dropped the pen instantly and replied, "Yes, I take a cigarette occasionally."

Mara tilted her head. "More than occasionally."

"Now, how could you possibly know I was exaggerating?"

Mara was quick to answer, "The inflection in your voice changed pitch when you lied. Plus, you dropped the pen. If it was an occasional habit, you would have dismissed the pen as a nervous tic.

"Very interesting. Anything else?"

"You've been divorced."

"And how did you come by this conclusion?"

She pointed to his hand and mentioned, "You have a circular red mark on the third finger. Right where a ring would have been." She paused and asked, "Still think I'm Mary Jane under here?"

Dr. Markham cleared his throat and answered, "Well, you are certainly Mary Jane in the flesh, which now makes me understand your earlier joke as you came in. You have no memories of your physical self but have all the memories of a total stranger. Dr. Harris said the first word you said after you woke was _Ben_. Was that in reference to Mary's son, Benjamin?"

She replied, "No. Mara's son was also named Ben."

"Uh huh. And Mary's ex-husband is named Luke, yet you also called for someone named Luke."

"I called for Luke _Skywalker_. That is Mara's husband, not ex-husband. Besides, why would Mary call for her Luke, of all people?"

"Good point. Yet, you must acknowledge the coincidence."

"I'm not making this up."

"I didn't mean to imply that. I'm only mentioning the fact that Mary's coma scores were so low."

"Explain."

"The Glasgow Coma Test measures how alert a person is when in a coma state. There are several stages. The results should be a 15 when a person is fully alert, though not necessarily active. A score of 3 or below is a total lack of consciousness or a vegetative state. A year ago after the accident, you scored at a 4. Yet, here you are now, fully alert and awake with no paralysis in legs that haven't been used for a long time. You claim to have no knowledge of your previous identity but do admit to being an entirely different woman with an alternate personality."

"It sounds so credible when you tell it," she quipped.

He ignored her remark and said, "As I stated before, I knew Mary. I studied her before the accident. She had been beyond Depression after Luke Wallace divorced her. What he had done to her was a large part of her exclusion from society, but not all of it. Mary lacked confidence all her life. I thought being alone with her son would help cure her out of depression, but he had too much of his father in him. That's what Mary was afraid of. I tried drug therapies and mental exercises for her, and none worked. There were times during a few sessions when I felt Mary could gain the strength to commit suicide. Then the accident happened.

"So, given the current situation, I believe that Mary has somehow made herself hidden and has invented someone with traits totally opposite of her own. An exclusion not from society, but from herself. Enter Mara Jade Skywalker. And you know as well as I do–"

"No! I _don't_ know!" Mara snapped. "That's my point. I don't _know _anything. I _think_ my name is Mara Jade Skywalker. I think that I am not from here. Hell, I don't even know the name of this planet I'm on."

That made Dr. Markham perk. "What...planet? So, Mara...isn't from Earth?" he asked no believing he had to.

""Earth? That's it? That's the name?" She chuckled. "How original."

Dr. Markham had to rephrase his question. "Mara is from...outer space?"

"Don't be stupid. No one is from outer space; it's a vacuum." She let a beat pass and exclaimed, "How can you just name a planet...Earth? That would be like calling Hoth...Ice. Tatooine would be...Desert." She chuckled to herself.

"Where are those places you mentioned?"

"I don't know. Sometimes strange words pop into my head."

"Maybe they're not so strange to Mara."

"If I know enough to say and pronounce those words, then why don't I know what they are?"

Dr. Markham shrugged. "If I had to make an educated guess without performing any tests, I'd say those words are found in Mara's memory but Mary's brain cannot define them. Disassociation. Very interesting. Something that Dr. Harris also said was that at one point you showed some pain in your thigh where there were no injuries sustained in Mary's accident. Did you feel pain?"

"I thought I did. It almost felt like a sharp sting."

"Like a needle?"

"Yes. Though, I just had some blood taken earlier and it felt nothing like that. This sting almost seemed to have some force behind it."

"As if in anger?"

"Or survival. What do you think that is?"

"A needle sting that was forced in? More than likely a dart. A tranquilizer?"

"Or worse."

He gave a pause before he stated, "I think it is high time you tell me some background on Mara Jade. What can you tell me?"

She took a very long pause to answer. "I don't know where she was originally from. I do know that she lived on a planet called Coruscant. She obviously had a family. But, she hardly had time for them. I get the sense she was a warrior of some kind. Her earlier life consisted of missions. She had some type of high-level training. She could fight in hand to hand combat. She was an expert in weapons. Sometimes I get the feeling that she was...dangerous. For what purpose, I have no clue."

"Spy," he replied quickly.

"You think so?"

"The high level of combat training, weapons knowledge, high attention to detail, along with the hand to hand fighting, which by the way Dr. Harris told me of your demonstration against Mr. Wallace, all suggest a highly secret assassin. You said that was earlier in her life. Maybe before Luke and Ben. Do you know anything about her childhood?"

"I think her childhood was spent training. Maybe to be a killer." She paused and muttered loud enough for the doctor to hear, "I know she never knew her mother."

"That suggests she was either too young to know her before she died, or that she had been taken away from her family at a very early age. Perhaps even as young as a baby."

She didn't hear his last comment. She went back to the dream again. Had the "Emperor" become her father figure? Was he the only family that Mara had known? When did Luke come into the picture? Then another phrase jumped out and screamed at her.

_YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER!_

She gasped and the doctor asked what happened. She answered back, "Luke...had been a target."

The doctor processed this and muttered, "She fell in love with her mark. My god, Mary, this is becoming more intriguing than the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I think this case is going to be one fascinating study."

"I don't recall being anyone's study before. Of course, that's not saying much. So, what now?"

"I was thinking of trying a different approach. Since your true identity is obscured by an alternate one, we need to dig deep into your psyche to get to Mary."

"How do you do that?"

"Hypnosis," he answered flatly.

She looked confused and replied, "What would my hip have anything to do with it?"

Dr. Markham actually laughed and corrected, "No, no. Hypnosis is where I put you into a trance to get to your subconscious. Therefore, I can find Mary's thoughts." He started looking at a paper in his folder and started writing. "I would like to start immediately. Since you have no physical problems I suspect Dr. Harris will release you today. I will allow you a day for your family tomorrow, but on Friday I'd like for you to come in the early morning. I'm sure you won't remember where my office is." He looked up at her. "On Old Shell road?" She slightly shook her head. "I didn't think so. Your mother would know. And you don't have to worry about insurance this time. I know how Mr. Wallace made Mary's life miserable with that. I plan to make this a case study. This is highly foreign territory."

Mara's sarcasm was in full bloom. "A case study. So, you will gain a high reputation and monetary value at my misery? I feel so honored."

"Please understand...Mara, this situation is unprecedented. It is not for my fame I seek in this. My goal here is the same as yours. To find out the truth. Besides, I believe it was Shakespeare who said in a play, _'Too much to know is to know nought but fame.'_"

She stared at him blankly, clearly not understanding the allusion.

He said back to her, "Never mind." He checked one of the papers in the file before him and asked, "Can you come in at eight in the morning on Friday?"

"If I clear my schedule, I'll see what I can do."

The doctor sniffed. "You think this attitude you're in is so much unlike Mary. I had a theory before the accident that there was a strong personality underneath Mary's timid exterior that was waiting to burst out. I believe Mara is that personality."

"You're suggesting Mara and Mary are one and the same. How is it that I have all the memories of one and none of the other?"

"For whatever reason, Mary has chosen to hide from herself. Though, I don't know how a kick in the head by a horse would trigger that. Probably it was just the means she needed to do so. That's what I intend to find out." He made sure he looked her straight in the eye. "I do intend to see through the end to this. I will stop at nothing to find out where Mary is." He paused for the most hairline of seconds before he added, almost muttering to himself, "The timing cannot be any more perfect."

Mara caught it and remarked, "Your practice not going so well?"

He chuckled slightly. "I may have to watch what I say and how I say it around you. It is true I have a reputation for being sort of a maverick in my field. It does not always make me the most popular choice. Anyway, this was just a preliminary meeting. I just wanted to see you after you've been incapacitated for the last year."

"High marks all around?"

"So far. I still don't know how you can walk immediately. Atrophy usually prevents that. It's almost as if...,"he trailed off.

She finished. "As if I was given a new set of muscles?"

"That would be highly improbable. Perhaps we will know more in the future."

"The future is always in motion," she quoted.

"Well said. I will let you go for now. I would like for you to spend some time with your family."

"Hope that doesn't include Luke." She paused and added, "Luke _Wallace_, that is."

"Even as Mara you can suspect Mr. Wallace's ill nature. Well, that's enough speculation for today. Have a good day tomorrow and I shall see you Friday morning."

"Thank you, doctor."

"Please, call me Steve. I prefer it that way with my patients. More informal and more comfortable that way."

"Ok...Steve."

"Excellent," he said as he sorted his papers, collected the recording device and placed them in an attache case he had placed nearby on the floor. He got up as she did and he shook her hand. "Until next time...Mara."

She nodded and he left her there alone. She slowly made it back up to her room as the thoughts of the meeting's subject swam inside her mind. She arrived at her room and Emma and Dr. Harris were already inside talking amongst themselves. Once she came in, Dr. Harris addressed her. "There she is. The woman of the hour. How did you like Dr. Markham?"

"You mean Steve?"

"Yes, yes, he does so love his informality. Though, he does have his advantages."

"I'm seeing him Friday morning. He's trying something called hiposus."

"Hypnosis. That would not be my choice, but it may just be what this situation calls for." He paused and asked, "So, are you ready to go home now?"

She smiled brightly as she looked over at the similar expression on Emma's face. "Yes. I am."


	8. Part 7

**Part 7**

**  
**

It had been hospital policy to have all released patients to be taken out by a wheelchair. Mara thought this to be unnecessary, but she obliged the action anyway. After Dr. Harris wrote her a prescription for potassium pills, as her level was low, he said his farewell and bid her good luck. Emma helped Mary in the wheelchair and off they went to the exit.

The first thing Mara felt once they reached outside was the intense heat and humidity of the atmosphere. She looked out at a vast area that was filled with vehicles of several different shapes and colors that were all parked idly. Mini-shuttles? Emma pushed her along a permacrete walkway amidst fine green grass along its edges to a vehicle standing alone at the end of the walkway. It was rectangular and silver in color with four round black wheels on each corner. Emma helped her out of the chair and opened a door on the right side so that Mara could enter. She climbed in and sat in the cushioned seat. Before her was a console similar to a starfighter console. Another wheel protruded out from the console in front of the seat next to her. Obviously, this was to pilot the vehicle. She watched as Emma entered and took that seat. Mara noted the operating procedure. Emma used a key to start the engine. She pulled a lever on the column of the directional wheel four times. There were two foot pedals on the floor. Right pedal to accelerate and left to brake.

As they traveled along roads contending with many other vehicles, it reminded her of the image of several vehicles in traffic on Coruscant. But, those vehicles had been high in the air. She took in the sight above her and saw the clear blue sky.

"There are no vehicles up there?" she asked.

"There may be jets flying above, but those fly so high you might not see them. Are you remembering anything out there?"

"No such luck. Look, Emma...," she trailed off at what she wanted to say.

Emma muttered, "There was a time when you called me Mom."

Mary breathed inward. This was exactly what she wanted to address. "I told you. I only said that because Mara had not said it for a long time. Please do not take this the wrong way, but I don't feel comfortable in calling you that now. I hope you don't mind if I stick to Emma."

"At this rate, hon, I'm just glad you're calling me anything. And it is a bit ironic."

"How so?"

"When Janie was little, she would only address her stepfather by his first name. Joe."

"Where is he now?"

"Oh, long dead and buried."

"Cancer?"

"Drunk driver hit him. It happened when Janie was thirteen. She and I were devastated."

"I bet. What happened to her birth father?"

"We usually don't acknowledge his existence. He had too many affairs with multiple bottles of Jack Daniels. That's whiskey."

"Did you always live in Mobile?"

"Just about. Mary was actually born in Selma where we first lived. Then Joe's job on the docks in Mobile Bay brought us here and we've been here ever since. Mary went to Murphy High School and went to South Alabama for an art degree. Not that it did any good. But, she enjoyed it."

Mara started to notice even more congestion and vehicles. "Crowded here."

"It's always crowded on Airport Boulevard. Sometimes I think the designer of this street did it while he was drunk."

It took several minutes but eventually Emma reached an area of less traffic and could go faster. She went a ways down the same street and then turned left at another street. They headed into a neighborhood with several houses of various sizes built close together. They had not looked new. Mara noted all the street names of each of the streets Emma turned at. She finally turned down one named Magnolia Way, which did not seem to have an outlet on the other side. Emma drove to the end of the street where there was no more street. Nothing but trees lined in front of them. Emma turned into a driveway of the last house on the left before the forest.

The driveway was part of a house that was single level and had green-white trim around it with a light blue front door. An open overhang extended on the house's left end and there was a tarp covering a huge object. If Mara had to guess, it would have to be another vehicle. She caught site of a maroon colored vehicle parked in the street in front of the house. It was larger than Emma's and had more of a shuttle appearance.

Emma put the car in park with the lever back in its original place, turned the key to shut off the engine, and sat there to stare at the house. "Here you are. Home sweet home."

"Looks comfy."

"It is on the outside. The current tenant can make it a little rowdy."

"I'm guessing that's Spike."

Emma sighed. "You can't call me Mom, but you can call your son that ridiculous nickname your ex–I mean, Luke gave him."

Mara turned to Emma and replied, "We'll see what he answers to in my presence." With that, Mara opened the door to get out, but not before she could hear Emma mutter something.

"I think I'm going to like this girl."

After Emma got out, she saw Mara glance at the maroon vehicle.

"Whose is that?"

"Oh, I invited Annie over for your homecoming. She brought Tommy with her to keep Ben busy."

They walked side by side to the front door.

Mara asked, "How much did you tell them about my situation?"

"Enough," was Emma's answer.

Emma took another key to open the blue door and they entered into a small hallway that led to a large family room. The two woman appeared, and as quick as a snap, a woman of average height but over average bosom rushed at Mary to place her arms around her so tight that getting oxygen was becoming a factor.

"Janie!," she yelled with a distinct accent inside Mary's ear. "I'm so glad to see you. We thought you were never waking up."

The woman released her full hold on Mary, but kept to holding on her arms as if inspecting her body. "You seem all right to me. Who cares what those doctors say. You sure do look like Mary Jane to me."

Mara looked over at Emma to say, "Apparently, you hadn't told them enough."

"Oh," the woman gasped. "You don't sound like Mary, though."

Emma started, "I told you Annie, she isn't herself."

"Annie," Mara stated. "You were on the Grateful Dead tour with Terry and Mary in '82."

"You remember that? Well, who could forget? We followed them all around the South and Midwest. Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Ann Arbor, then up the road in Birmingham. That sure was a time." She looked back at Emma. "You see, she remembers us."

Mara added, "Actually, I only know because Emma told me. But, she gave me some discs to listen to. Very interesting music."

"I'll say. Boy, do I envy you. To hear Jerry for the first time again."

"Jerry?"

"The main guitarist. _The_ best in rock; God rest his soul."

Emma interjected, "Now that we've had the Dead Minute, where are the boys?"

"Oh, they're in the back playing with firecrackers."

"They're _what_?" cried Emma. Instead of waiting for an answer from Annie, Emma made a beeline across the family room through a walkway that led to the kitchen. Mary and Annie followed.

Annie pleaded, "Hey, I figured it made them busy, so I let them be."

Emma shouted, "And you didn't think of the dangers?"

Annie had no answer.

Emma reached a set of glass doors adjacent to the kitchen and slid one back to the open air. The two women followed her outside. They stepped out onto a small permacrete patio. A table with four chairs under a large umbrella set in the middle was off to the left side of the patio. At the far end of the patio were two boys; one a fair-haired blonde and the other with hair as black as coal. Mara didn't have to guess which was Benjamin Skyler. The boys sat on either side of an object that several small cylindrical pieces of paper tied together. The blonde boy had a contraption in his hand that he was trying to flick with his thumb.

When the three woman appeared, neither boy acknowledged their presence.

Emma yelled, "Boys! Don't play with those. It's too dangerous. Tommy, where did you get that lighter?"

"It's Mom's. She let me have it."

Emma shot a glance at Annie, "Really, Annie."

"Hey, it kept them busy."

Mara stepped a little closer and asked, "What are they playing with?"

"Firecrackers," Emma explained. "They're full of gun powder and when you light them...No! Tommy, don't light th– "

It was too late. Tommy had indeed lit the end of the wick which tied all the firecrackers together. Immediately, the two boys took off into the yard away from the scene and watched in anticipation. Within seconds they were treated to a series of loud bangs. When they were all blown, the boys whooped and hollered in success.

"That was the coolest," cried Benjamin. "Let's try the big one now." The accent was a close relative of Luke's.

"No!" exclaimed Emma. "Those are too dangerous. Ben, you get over here and see your Momma. She just woke up yesterday. You haven't spoken to her for a year."

_And you still won't for a while, kid_, Mara thought.

Ben looked up from his enjoyment and spotted his mother and said casually, "Hey, Mom. We're just gonna light this last one. It's awesome. It has red sparks at the end."

"Give it to me, Ben," demanded Emma. "You're not playing with fire. With our luck you'll burn the house down."

"No, I won't. It's only one more."

"Ben, I said no," Emma kept on.

"C'mon, Grams, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Alive and well, thank you. Where is your common sense, young man?"

"Alive and well," Ben repeated in a rather patronizing manner. He turned back to Tommy, who already had the last larger firecracker in hand, and said, "Light it."

Amidst further warnings from Emma that were useless, Mara looked around at the yard. Unkempt for the most part. Several pieces of garbage scattered about. There was a strange metal contraption in the extreme rear of the yard. It had what looked like a slide and two chains hanging down attached to a metal rectangle. Swings. She then looked on the backside of the house and spotted what she thought would work.

With kids such as these who didn't mind, words did nothing to stop them. Action, however, got their attention. She went over to the long green folded hose and reached the spicket. She twisted the handle and it completed her assumption that it was a water hose. It now started ejecting water at full blast. She stretched it to extend nearer to the boys.

She was almost too late. Tommy had already lit the end of the wick and the boys scattered even further to wait. Mara was quicker. She took the end of the hose and doused the end of the fuse rendering the firecracker useless.

Mara looked hard at Benjamin and exclaimed in a stern voice, "Your grandmother said to stop it!"

The look of utter shock on Ben's face was almost thrilling. Mara could guess that Mary had never acted so aggressively before.

After Emma went over to shut of the water, Mara cried out, "Benjamin Beau Skyler...get over here."

The dark-haired boy came reluctantly to stand in front of her. She could now read the lettering on his shirt and grimaced without humor.

_I tried to be good, but I got bored._

He looked to be about eleven and was chunky in the middle. He looked up at her in confusion.

She went on to explain, "Let me get something straight, right now. I may look like your mother, but I won't act like her. In case you hadn't heard, or more likely ignored, I woke up from a year long coma yesterday with a whole different personality than Mary Jane Skyler's. My name is Mara Jade Skywalker, and as long as I'm a tenant inside Mary's body, things are going to change around here. It's going to be a whole new game of Sabbacc."

"A game of what?"

"Never mind. Now, I noticed as I came through the family room that there were toys scattered everywhere. You are going back in there to pick all that up and straighten the room."

"You can't tell me what to do," the boy sneered with feigned confidence.

Mara knelt down to his level so that her brown eyes met his own brown ones. _How I miss my brilliant green eye color. They were so much more intimidating. _She still gave him a focused stare that told him she meant business. "That was not a request. That was a demand." She stood back up and looked at the other boy. "Tommy, give me the lighter." He paused. "Don't make me repeat myself."

Tommy came up to her and placed the lighter in Mary's palm. "Now, go help Ben in the family room."

Ben hissed, "It's Spike!"

She looked back at him with the same extreme stare. "In this house, and in my presence, you are Benjamin. Understood?"

Then the boy did something unexpected. "Yes, Ma'am. I'm sorry. I understand," he replied in a calmer, yet defeated, voice. "C'mon, Tommy, let's pick up."

The two boys walked slowly through the glass doors. If they had tails they would have been between their legs at that moment.

The two women who watched the spectacle were awestruck. Annie's mouth had drooped open wide and Emma wore an admiring smile.

Annie shut her mouth then said, "Honey, I am votin' you in for Mother of the Year. How did you get them to stop and actually do work?"

Mara came past her as she headed to the table and transferred the lighter into Annie's palm. "Just don't back down to them."

"Okay," Annie answered. "For that feat, you need a beer. Be right back."

Mara looked back at Emma, who was still smiling. Mara uttered, "No comment on my parenting skills?"

"I think you handled it brilliantly. Though, that may very well be the only time Ben has heard his mother's voice yell at him like that."

"You figure it was in due time?" Mara pulled out one of the chairs at the table and sat down in it.

After Emma repeated the act with the chair opposite Mara's, she said, "It doesn't matter what I figure. Now that you're back, you can raise Ben as you see fit. I only played substitute mother for a year. I wasn't sure I was right for the part."

"You raised Mary Jane well enough, didn't you?"

"The jury is still out on that. She was always shy. No confidence. She went to bed with and married the wrong man. It took her years to gain the confidence to separate from him. She did love horses, but she got kicked in the head by one. No offense, but Mary couldn't even wake up from a coma correctly."

"That's not her fault."

"I know. All that adds up and...I don't know. Somehow I feel as though I didn't raise her right."

"Nonsense, Emma. You can't raise her personality. That's pretty much set at an early age. You can't teach them outside of that. You have to teach around it. Something Dr. Markham said earlier today that is so true. No can be blamed for their personality."

Emma shook her head in admiration. "You are so wise, Mara. I hope that maybe you can teach Mary something."

"I doubt it."

"Maybe you already are and don't realize it."

The sliding glass doors opening interrupted their thoughts and out came Annie holding three dark brown bottles in her hands. "Boy, you sure did get to them, sweetie. They are picking up everything. Pretty soon they may break out the Pledge." She sat a bottle in front of each of them and sat down at the third chair in between Emma and Mara.

Mara took the bottle and tilted some of the contents into her mouth. And she almost spat it back up, but swallowed with an ugly grimace. "Tarkin's Ghost, what is this?"

Annie answered innocently, "It's beer, hon."

"You mean ale?"

"You say tomahto, I say tomato. You always liked beer, Mary."

Emma supplied the explanation, "_Mary_ liked beer, Annie."

Mara took another swig. It was a little better than the first one, but not much. "I don't think Mara was much of an ale drinker."

Annie said, "Guess it takes some gettin' used to. Ah, Hell, a few more and the taste won't bother you none."

"I think I preferred wine," Mara remarked.

"Wine? Mary hated wine."

Mara looked back at Emma with a look that said, _She still doesn't get it. _Emma shrugged. Mara turned back at Annie after a pause and said flatly, "I'm not going to apologize for my own tastes."

"Okay," Annie replied, embarrassed. "What did you say your name is...Mara?"

She nodded.

"Well, that's going to be confusing at your club."

"Club?"

"Where Mary works. It''s a nightclub on Main in downtown Mobile near the docks called _Fantasma_. Don't 'cha just love the name? A man by the name of Deke Werner owns it."

Mara's short term memory kicked in. "That's the man who helped me get to the hospital. Luke and Lynn, too." She paused and explained, "Luke told me."

"Yeah, they did," Annie reflected. "They're the ones who found you lying in Deke's stable with that crazy horse standing there like he was proud of what he done. They took you to the hospital and you never woke up. That was one F'ed up day. Pardon my language, Emma. Anyway, you first worked at the club as a dancer. No nudity. At least Mary took a stand on that. And right about the time of the accident, Deke was all set to groom Mary to be an assistant manager."

Emma chimed in, "Mary wanted no part of that, Annie. She knew what kind of people Deke associated with."

Mara suggested, "The nefarious kind?"

"That's putting it mildly. Thugs are what I call them. Everyone in Mobile knows that place is a haven for drug dealers."

Annie added, "Though no one can prove it. They say Deke has some ties with the Mafia."

Mara asked, "Is that like an underground crime organization?"

Annie nodded as she took a last swig of her beer.

Mara muttered to herself, "Kind of like Black Sun."

"What's that?" Annie asked.

"Nothing."

Annie began to stand and said, "Well, I have to get going. Tom is working late tonight and I still have to get to _Bruno's_ for food. The boys should be done by now, unless they're dragging out the sweeper." She addressed Mara. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mara." She hesitated at her next question. "Are...are they finding out why you ain't Mary yet?"

"Working on that tomorrow, in fact," Mara answered.

"Ok, then. I really do miss Mary Jane. Well, let me get out of this depressed mode. Listen to Jerry some more and that will cure your troubles away." She turned and yelled, "Tommy! We're going!" Annie gathered her son and the two left.

Mara then took a tour of her own around Mary's house. It was small, but quaint. She figured out whose bedrooms were whose just by reading a sign on one saying, _Hazardous Attitude Inside_. She creaked the door open and found Ben laying on the bed on his back. He had the same type of ear speakers in his ear and she thought she could hear faint music. He looked deep in thought and didn't even turn his head at her. Mara shut the door quietly. The last thing she wanted was to push Ben so far away that he would alienate himself from Mary.

She headed back to the kitchen where Emma was preparing a dinner.

They stood together in silence until Mara suddenly asked, "How do I get to Old Shell Road?"

Without missing a beat, Emma replied, "Going to the doctor on your own tomorrow?"

"Now who has the gift of insight?"

Emma gave her directions and added that she will thankfully avoid Airport Boulevard in the morning. Mara listened intently.

"Can I use your vehicle?"

"You mean car? Why not use your own?"

Mara was confused; but only for a second. "That's what's under that tarp out there."

"I see you don't miss much." She set aside the food and went to a spot on a wall where a series of keys were hanging. She chose one set and motioned for Mara to follow her. There was a door adjacent to the sliding glass doors that Emma opened. It led to the extended structure to the house that kept the vehicle–car, Mara reminded herself.

Emma asked for Mara's help to take off the tarp and they did so. Underneath was another car that was colored pitch black with dark interior. It had sleek lines in the metal of the body.

"Wow," Mara remarked. "Looks fast."

"It better be. It's a 2005 Mustang. Deke helped Mary buy it. Just don't ask where he got it from. It hasn't been driven in a year, though when Luke came for Ben on weekends, I made him start it. He gassed it up a while ago." She threw Mara the keys, which she caught flawlessly. "Get in and try her out."

Mara did so and she sat in the first seat. She familiarized herself with the console, but there was no lever on the column like Mary's car. She then saw a joystick set in the middle that had letters along one side. She counted down four. "D?" she questioned.

"Drive," Emma supplied. "Then you have Park, Reverse and Neutral, plus all your other gears. Deke was so mad that Mary only wanted an automatic. He said it was a sacrilege for a Mustang to have automatic transmission."

Mara took the key and found where it went and turned the engine. It revved up loud like a small beast at first, then there was a distinct screech."

"Not too much," Emma suggested. "So, you think you can drive this?"

Mara placed her hands on the steering wheel and felt excited. She answered back, "Yes, I can.


	9. Part 8

**Part 8**

The rest of the day had been peaceful. Emma spent some time teaching Mara the road signs and rules of the road. They fixed a dinner of some kind of fish that Emma fried. Benjamin had not joined them. He stayed in his room the entire evening and night. Emma brought him a plate of food which he accepted from inside his room. After they ate, Emma introduced Mara to their computer, including the Internet. Mara's mind immediately went to a similar term. HoloNet. Once it was turned on, Mara found her way through and searched all kinds of information on Alabama's street maps and the basic history of Earth. For the most part, this planet's history was full of war, violence, dirty politics, and the emphasis on entertainment and money. Different galaxy; same history.

She found a map to Dr. Markham's office and the night club where Mary worked downtown. It took her minutes to memorize the street names. She didn't know why she needed this information so fast. Perhaps it was relative to something that was drilled into a young Mara Jade's head. Know your territory. It was almost like she were on a mission. What mission would this be? To seek her own identity? That would be a tall order. Maybe Dr. Markham's method would help.

She suddenly discovered the time and that she was now alone with the blue-white screen of the computer giving the family room a soft glow. Emma must have gone on to bed. Mara turned the machine off and did the same. There were no dreams that night and she slept soundly.

The next morning, she got up in plenty of time and used the refresher. Emma had called it the 'bathroom', but she didn't see how that could be when the small room only had a shower stall and no bathtub. She passed by Ben's door but stopped to sneak a peak inside. He was still sound asleep. She left him alone. As much as she could not figure what was happening to her, she couldn't imagine what the kid was going through. Which sparked a memory that she forgot. The first day when she awoke she could feel the emotions of Dr. Harris and Luke. She no longer seemed to possess that ability. Coupled with her inability to lift objects since the plastic cup, she figured these skills were one-time accomplishments.

She found Emma at the kitchen table eating toast. She looked up after chewing a piece and brightened to ask, "Mary Jane?"

"Mara Jade," she said as she slowly shook her head.

"Just checking. No offense?"

"None taken. I'd be doing the same if I were in your boots."

Mara took a half piece of toast and ate it. She then told Emma she was leaving to go to Dr. Markham's.

Emma muttered loud enough for Mara to hear, "Here's hoping whatever he does works."

Mara paused and turned her head back at Mary's mother with a look of pity. "You miss her, don't you?"

Emma only smiled and answered, "You're a mother. What do you think?"

Without a word, Mara nodded and started to open the side door when Emma spoke again.

"Luke is coming later to pick up Ben. It happens to be his weekend ."

"Can't he postpone it considering the circumstances? I'd like to try to talk to Ben."

Emma sniffed. "You know Luke–well, Mary did..._does_."

Mara replied, "Yeah, I know a little about him myself."

Emma asked, "Are you sure you're comfortable in driving?"

Mara answered with a swagger to her voice, "I can drive anything."

She finally opened the door with key in hand and sat in the drivers seat. She turned the key more gently than she did on the previous day. The engine revved without screeching. She slowly pulled the floor lever to D and stepped down on the right pedal. A little too hard.

The car lunged forward so quickly that her momentum couldn't keep up and she was propelled backward. She lifted her foot off the right pedal to step on the left. Again, too hard. Now she lunged forward.

"Careful," cried Emma, whom she saw in the rear view mirror, standing at the door to the carport. "The brake is a mite touchy."

"No kidding?" She went to step down on the right pedal ever so slowly. The car went forward more smoothly this time. She used the steering wheel to turn right and she caught sight of Emma waving. She waved back for a second and then concentrated on driving. She turned left and right on streets she knew by name and soon she reached Airport Blvd. She had to turn left here and, luckily, there was hardly any traffic at this end of Airport at that time. She made her turn and as she did, she found that the harder she stepped on the right pedal, the faster the vehicle went.

Primitive, but effective.

She already knew that her next turnoff wasn't for another few blocks. So, she stepped harder down on the pedal. The rush of air through her black hair accompanied with the engine's purr made her ecstatic. She felt alive and free for the first time in...when? Years? Decades? She couldn't remember. But, it wasn't because it was a memory deficiency. She really felt like Mara Jade could not remember the last time when she had let loose. She was sure she could go faster but she was now heading into more traffic where she had to slow with left pedal. Gently.

In quicker time than she thought, she reached a street named Hillcrest. She went right on it. She went along it to the end of it to reach Old Shell. To her right about a few hundred yards were a set of complexes, one of which looked similar to a shockball field. She was sure they had another name for it here. Maybe even a different game altogether. She figured the place to be part of the University that Emma mentioned. She turned left on Old Shell, away from the complex, and headed into a more commercial area.

She found the address of Dr. Markham's office on the left hand side, which meant she would have to wait for a space to turn between oncoming traffic. She saw a gap between a car and a large freighter-like vehicle. She took the quick turn between them but it was in the nick of time. It almost seemed like the freighter vehicle sped up and it almost hit her from behind. The driver sounded the vehicle's horn at her. In the passenger seat, an arm emerged out of the window and the hand formed into a fist...except for the middle finger extended. After she finished her turn into the parking lot, she raised her own arm out through her window and repeated the same gesture. Maybe it was a form of greeting? Somehow, she didn't think that was correct.

She proceeded further in the parking lot and saw the small building with a plaque on the side that read Dr. Markham's name. There were almost no cars there and she had no problem parking. Until her momentum went forward again as if she hit something. She kept her foot on the brake and cracked open the door to see the front underside of the car had hit a low concrete slab at the front end of the parking space. She uttered a small curse and shut the door. She eased the lever to R with her foot still on the brake and the car went backward a bit, clearing away from the slab. She pulled the lever to P and exited the car.

She reached the door to the building and entered. Inside was deathly quiet. There was a counter in front of her with a hallway perpendicular going to the back of the building. To her left was a door to an office room with Dr. Stephen Markham etched on the glass portion of the door. She was alone for a few minutes before the door finally opened. From inside the office, Dr. Markham emerged wearing casual jeans and a plain white golf shirt.

"Ah, I thought I heard someone come in. You're a bit early."

"I had to find time to figure out how to drive. By the way," she held up her fist with her middle finger extended, "what does this mean?"

The doctor tried to hold in a chuckle but failed. "That...is a most rude gesture. Unfortunately, if you saw someone display it to you while driving, I'd say you pissed them off pretty good."

"I figured." She gestured to the empty office. "No assistant today?"

"It's her day off. Though, I did want us to be alone today."

Mara wasted no time in returning the remark, "Not ready to make this public yet?"

The doctor shook his head. "I really have to get used to that intuition of yours. Now, shall we?" He extended his arm to lead her into his office. "Come in here. I have everything set up."

She followed his lead and went into his office. Inside the shades were pulled down making the room dim but so much as to not see. Off to the left end of the room sat a large desk and in the center was a set up of two large chairs that almost could be considered upright beds. In between the two sat a small table with what looked like an unlit candle held by an elaborate candlestick in the center.

"Would you like some tea? I find that some good old Earl Grey relaxes the body before hypnotization."

"Why not?"

He went to a small heated pad behind his desk and poured a liquid from a pot that was sitting on it. He went over to hand her the cup. She sipped the warm drink. She nodded her approval in taste.

He motioned to one of the chairs for her to sit in and she did, while he took the opposite chair. "So, how was your family visit?"

"Enlightening." She sipped more tea.

"You met Ben, I assume?"

"Already had to scold him within five minutes of meeting him."

"Yes, you have indeed met Ben. I believe he identifies more with his father, which Mary found disturbing. I do have a theory that Ben is just trying to win over Mary's attention."

"You think so? He did calm down after I told him he was to be called Benjamin in my presence."

"Not Spike?" the doctor chuckled. "Well, I think you know more about him than you believe" He watched her finish her tea. "Done? Here let me take that." He did so and placed in on the edge of his desk for the time being. He sat back down in his chair. "Now, let's get started."

He took a small device from his pants pocket. It was similar to the lighter Tommy had used to light the fireworks. The doctor flicked it once and a small flame ejected which he used to light the candle. He reached for another item from his desk that she recognized as his recording device. "You don't mind if I record this?"

After she gave her approval in a nod, he announced, "And now, Mara, I want you to sit back in that chair and just relax."

She did so and she almost felt as if she were lying down. "If I stay in this position, I may fall asleep."

"Which is essentially our goal. The difference is I cannot allow you to reach REM stage. Once you're there, your subconscious is closed to me. To avoid that, I need for you to focus on the candle. It doesn't have to be the flame itself. Just focus on the candle as a whole. That's it."

His voice from this point became soothing and less harsh. As he spoke, he saw that her eyes were getting heavy and they were almost shut. "Keep focus on the candle. Nothing else exists but that candle. Only its light exists. Keep focus. I want you to picture the candle with the light floating inside a huge room. Since only that light is important, you must go to it. There is a door opened that takes you into the room with the candlelight. You must enter this room. Follow the light into that room. Nothing else but you and the light. Enter the room. That's it. You are now inside the room floating with the light. The door has closed itself. You are now alone with the candlelight. Nothing else exists. Just you...the light...and memories."

After a long pause to check to see that her eyes were not shifting from side to side, Dr. Markham finally spoke to her in a regular voice. "Mary Jane Skyler? Am I speaking with Mary Jane Skyler?"

She answered back in monotone, "No. Mara Jade Skywalker."

"Ok. That will have to do for now. Mara Jade, I would like for you to describe yourself. Who are you? Where do you come from? Can you do that?"

"Of course. I live on Coruscant, inside the Core. I am a Jedi Master now. I am wife to Grand Master Luke Skywalker. Or, as I prefer to call him, Farmboy."

"Why is that?"

"He grew up on a moisture farm on Tatooine."

"And where is that?"

"A remote planet on the edge of the Outer Rim."

"Outer rim? The outer rim of what?"

"Our galaxy."

"So that is to say that your galaxy...is not our galaxy."

"Oh, no. You only have nine planets and their small moons. Our galaxy has thousands of planets spread across a vast area."

"How large an area?"

She shrugged. "Scholars have guessed it to be about a several hundred thousand light years across. Maybe a million. No one has gone out to measure it exactly."

"Of course. Tell me more about yourself, Mara. You have a son?"

"Ben," she uttered with the greatest amount of pride. "I am so proud of him. He is only fourteen, but has matured so fast. I can easily see him become a great Jedi Master. It's funny, we thought at one time he would never use the Force. When he was a kid, he refused to use it. I saw it then as an abnormality, but now I see it as a wise decision."

"What force are you speaking of?"

"_The_ Force. A Jedi's most powerful weapon. Excuse me...tool. Farmboy wouldn't like it referred to as a weapon. It's an energy field that binds our galaxy together. Jedi can use it to their advantage. They can feel emotions. They can sense future events, somewhat. They can move objects with their mind. They can plant images inside other minds."

"And you have these skills now?"

"I used to. Or, actually, I did a few days ago."

"Really?"

"Yes. I could feel the doctor's laughter when I said something funny. I felt Luke's fear when I backed him against the door. And...I remember that night...I saw the past."

"Your past?"

"Naturally. It was one of my first lessons with a remote. It got me a few times, but I nailed it eventually. Then, something came up to interrupt that lesson, so I practiced my levitation. I was lifting sticks of wood. I saw them perfectly in my mind. I could feel them. Then I woke up. I saw on the side of my bed, a cup was raised off the table a few inches."

"It...levitated. In reality?"

"Yes. Not for long. A nurse came in and broke my concentration and it dropped to the floor."

"Have you tried this at any other time?"

"I did try. I was using someone else's mind and I tried picking up a paper card. It didn't move. The difference was that I couldn't feel it. The mind I was using wasn't trained for it."

"But, the cup did raise."

She shrugged again. "Maybe I was using my own mind then."

"A residual effect from the dream. Interesting. So, not just anyone can use this Force?"

"Oh, no. Even I couldn't master it at first. The Emperor first taught me about it."

"The Emperor?"

"Emperor Palpatine. Leader of the Galactic Empire. He raised me from a small child to be his secret assassin and investigator. I would perform missions that others could not. I was known as the Emperor's Hand."

"You killed in the name of this Emperor?"

"Killed. Maimed. Destroyed. The missions consisted mostly of outcasts against the Empire or Imperial officers and figureheads trying to cheat the Empire from the inside."

"You were Internal Affairs."

"With an edge."

"How long were you the Emperor's Hand?"

"All through my teenage and adult years. My first mission was right after the Rebels destroyed the first Death Star."

"Death...star?"

"Palpatine's pet project. It was a powerful space station the size of a small moon. Took him years to finally get it finished. It had enough firepower to obliterate whole planets. He wanted to use it against any system that challenged the ways of his Empire. But, the Rebels found a small weakness in the plans and destroyed it."

"There was a war?"

"There's always a war somewhere."

"What happened in this one?"

"The Emperor was defeated. His arrogance and overconfidence was his undoing. And who should defeat him but the son of his number one apprentice, Darth Vader."

"Son of Darth..._Vader_? Hmm...'_vader_' means father in Dutch. Interesting. And who was this son of Vader?"

"None other than Luke Skywalker himself. My reign as the Hand ended when the Emperor died. See, I could hear the Emperor through the Force from anywhere in the galaxy. That was how he sent me missions. Except for one. A few weeks before he died, Palpatine sent me on a mission on Tatooine. To kill Luke Skywalker. I failed. I felt so responsible for his death. His last command to me as he died was: Kill Luke Skywalker."

There was a long pause as she kept in her subconscious state. The doctor noted, "Instead of killing him, though, you married him."

"Not immediately. I found out Palpatine's true evil nature. His last command to me was only for revenge of his death. I couldn't see it then, but I learned later that Jedi do not set out for revenge. Luke showed me that. And I will forever be grateful for that lesson. He and I crossed paths over a decade, had a few interactions here and there. At one time, ten years later, Luke came to rescue me off a world that contained a threat to the galaxy. During our trials and battles there, we discovered that we not only work well together, but we formed a powerful Force bond between the two of us. I can't describe it. We knew each others' secrets, desires, hopes, and dreams."

"It was a bond in the truest sense of the word."

"Yes," she breathed her answer as a whisper.

"Ok," the doctor started, "we have a history background. Now, Mara, I'd like for you to simply reminisce. And I want it to be random. Or if you like, in chronological order. You are still floating inside the room with the candlelight. Now inside the room are small bubbles. They are bubbles that contain various scenes in your life. I want you to pick a bubble and tell me about the scene inside of it. Remember any kind of detail about the memory and recall it to me. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Fine. Begin when ready."

_Mara suddenly found herself in a small room sitting in a chair near a bed. Inside the bed lay a human male. He was still in his flight suit. The yellow-orange sun coming through the nearby window shone through the man's sandy-blonde hair. He started to stir and look around._

_She remembered thinking then, _He still doesn't have a clue as to what happened to him. Some Jedi he is. _"Finally awake, are you?" she said from her chair._

_Startled, he twisted his head toward the voice. He looked around, confused, until he spotted her sitting nearby. His bright blues eyed her posture in her chair and she saw him notice the small blaster in her lap. She smirked inwardly and thought, _Yes, I have you covered if you make the slightest move. _She almost wished then that he had made a move. Now, he really looked confused. Almost as if he could not feel something._

"_That's right. Welcome back to the world of mere mortals," she said with a smile that held no humor. _Ah, he's feeling the sense of zero Force. _"Don't like it, do you?" she mocked. "It's not easy to suddenly lose everything that once made you special, is it?"_

_Slowly, carefully, Luke Skywalker eased his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, giving his body plenty of time to get used to moving again. She watched him closely, her right hand dropping to her lap to rest on the top of the blaster._

_She called out, "If the purpose of all this activity is to impress me with your remarkable powers of recuperation, you don't need to bother."_

"_Nothing so devious," Luke advised, breathing hard and trying not to wheeze. "The purpose of all this activity is to get me back on my feet." He looked her hard in the eye. She knew he was waiting for her to flinch, even if she herself had her own Force powers taken from her for the moment. _It's not going to happen_, she almost said to him._

_He went on. "Don't tell me; let me guess. You're Mara Jade."_

"_That doesn't impress me, either," she said coldly. "Karrde already told me he'd mentioned my name to you."_

_Luke nodded. "He also told me that you were the one who found my X-wing. Thank you."_

_Her green eyes flashed. "Save your gratitude," she bit out. "As far as I'm concerned, the only question left is whether we turn you over to the Imperials or kill you ourselves." Abruptly, she stood up, the blaster ready in her hand. "On your feet. Karrde wants to see you."_

_Carefully, Luke stood up. She caught him notice his lightsaber hooked to her belt. _That's it, _hero_, not so powerful without it, are you?

_He commented, "I can't say that either of those options sounds appealing."_

"_There's another one." She took half a step forward, moving close enough that he could have reached out and touched her. Lifting the blaster, she pointed it directly at his face. "You try to escape...and I kill you right here and now."_

_The image of them facing so close together with her threat still fresh in the air began to lose focus and dissolve into another image._

_The new image melded into an area that was much colder. She was deep inside a cave on a high metal grate. Beside her stood Luke Skywalker looking out over the side. Below them was a pool of water rising towards them courtesy of a huge wall on the opposite side. Both of them were soaked to the bone. The image formed just in time for her to hear the middle of Luke's conversation._

"–_so close in the Force that it was like we'd become a single person. It was...something very special."_

_She lifted an eyebrow, a flicker of amusement worming its way through even the deadly seriousness of the situation. "Really?" she said. "How special?"_

_He grimaced. "You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?" he growled._

"_Oh, come now," she said, mock accusingly. "When have I ever made anything easy for you?"_

"_Not very often," he conceded. Visibly bracing himself, he reached over and took her hands. "Mara...will you marry me?"_

"_You mean if we get out of here alive?"_

_Luke shook his head. "I mean regardless."_

_Under other circumstances, she knew, she would probably have considered herself honor-bound to make him sweat, just a little. But with the water still rising below them, such games seemed rather pointless. Besides, there was no reason for old defense patterns to come into play. Not now. Not with him._

"_Yes," she said. "I will."_

_The images of them standing together hand in hand enjoying the momentous occasion for the small amount of time they had until they were required to search for a way to survive slowly dissolved and began to form into another image._

_They were inside an immense ballroom-sized venue with thousands of people and cameras focused on her and Luke. She wore an elegant white dress that complimented her red-gold hair. Luke was also dressed in his best as they faced each other. A third figure standing in front of them was speaking._

"_Mara Jade, do you freely bind yourself to Luke Skywalker, to be his companion, partner, aide, and comfort for all the days of your life?"_

"_I do."_

"_And you, Luke Skywalker, do you promise to forsake all others, to be Mara's comfort and confidant, friend, lover, and companion for all your mortal days?"_

"_I do."_

_Mara stared speaking the rest of her vows. "For a relationship that started with me trying to kill you, this has become more than I imagined. I have never felt more complete than now, knowing we will be together for all eternity."_

_Luke began, "Well, since Leia always wanted to kill Han, I knew where this could lead." He took a breath before he finished. "You are more than I deserve, all that I desire, and all I need to feel whole. I love you, Mara."_

_The man conducting the ceremony told them to face the crowd. He then loudly announced with the help of the PA system, "May I now introduce...Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker. Husband and wife."_

_The new couple did not hear the thunderous applause from the crowd. All that could be heard between them were their beating hearts as one. Their Force bond washed over them and immersed them within its own security._

_She thought then, _nothing can separate us now.

_The image of them embracing and bringing their lips together for their first official kiss and husband and wife started to dissolve and form another._

_She found herself inside a med facility laying in bed. She felt weak but very proud. She was holding a bundle in her arms that contained a newly born human boy. Luke was beside her holding her hand with his attention on his son._

_Another human male in his teenage years approached them. She knew him. Her nephew._

"_Hello, Anakin," Mara said weakly. "I knew you'd be here."_

"_I thought you were...Can I come closer?"_

"_Sure."_

_Anakin stared down at the newborn. "Are they all that ugly?" he blurted._

"_You'll want to rephrase that after what I just went through," Mara warned. "Think in the general direction of antonyms."_

"_I mean he's–"_

"_His name is Ben," Luke said._

"_He's beautiful. In the Force, and...But, he's all sort of squinched and wrinkly."_

"_Just like you were," Mara said._

"_And you're really okay?"_

"_I've never been better," Mara told him. "Everything is perfect." She looked down at her child. "Perfect." As weary as it was, her smile had enough wattage to light all of Coruscant._

_This image faded to begin a series of cut images going faster than she could describe. They were scenes of battles won and lost. There were too many to describe in detail. One, she thought, contained a species of beings that were hideously scarred but greatly proud of it. She saw an image of Luke battling a creature that had an insect-like appearance. She couldn't see herself yet in any of these images. Were these incidents where Mara was a mere spectator? Things she had not been active in but no less worried about. She then saw her son. Grown. A fourteen year old. He was holding a sniper rifle. He closed in on his target. He began his shooting._

No!_, she cried out to no avail. _Not like me.

_Then, there was another image. It was a figure in the shadows. A dark, looming figure coming into focus. At first, she thought, _Vader_. But, it was not him. The image on the figure finally showed and a medium sized human male with dark hair appeared. She knew him. Her other nephew. _Jacen._ He had been bloodied and beat up. _

_She was inside a rocky cavern facing him at an awkward position as she held a vibroblade close to his neck and he was clutching a wad of her red hair. Her only thought at this moment was to protect Ben. Then, she thought she saw not Jacen...but her son. Ben. She was fighting Ben? She blinked._

_Then she felt it._

_The pain in her thigh was excruciating at first. Then it subsided. Too quickly. She gasped._

"_Oh...it's done..."Jacen said. "I'm sorry, Mara. Had to be you. Thought it was Ben. But, it's over now, it's over..."_

"_What have you done? What the _stang_ have you done to me?" But she was already losing her balance as the poisoned paralyzed her, and she slumped to one side as he got to his feet, staring up at him with more shock than rage or fear."_

"_The prophecy." It didn't matter now; the toxin–complex, relatively painless–was circulating through her body. "Don't fight it. No healing trance. Just let go..."_

_Mara tried to get up but sank back to sit on her heels, with an expression as if she'd forgotten something and trying to remember. She crumpled against the wall. "What?" She tried to put her fingers to her lips, shaking, but her hand fell back to her lap. She looked at them as if expecting to see blood._

_Jacen announced, "It's my destiny, Mara–to be a Sith Lord, and bring order and justice. I had to kill you to do it. You're going to save so many people, Mara. You've saved Ben. It's not a waste, believe me."_

"_You're...as vile as he was."_

"_Who?"_

"_Palpatine."_

"_It's not like that. It's not about ambition. It's about the galaxy, about peace. It's about building a different world."_

_She flashed him the last of her famous anger. She had heard this speech before. She was sure Anakin Skywalker was spouting the same useless words to his victims. She was breathing heavily now, one hand slack in her lap but the other clenching and unclenching as if to give him one last punch. Her vivid green eyes were still bright with relentless purpose. _That's right, just try and forget this image of your own aunt dying at your own hands.

_She spoke with her last amount of strength. "You think...you've won," she said, slurred, but utterly lucid and unafraid. "But Luke will crush you...and I refuse...to let you...destroy the future...for my Ben."_

_With that, her strength, and everything else that was a part of her, left her body._

Ben_ was the last word that Mara Jade Skywalker ever spoke._

And the very _first_ word she had said using Mary Jane Skyler's body.

_Mary._

Someone was calling her. Where was she? Mara Jade Skywalker had died. Who was she?

_Mary. _

That voice was calling for her. Whose was it? The only thing she could see was an image of a stable. A dark black horse was beside her.

_Mary!_

There is another presence here. Mara?

_Mary Jane Skyler!_

Someone was in the stable with her. Someone...familiar.

_NO!_

Dr Markham yelled for her again. "Mary!" Wake up! You hear the door opening. The candlelight is out. Come back." As soon as he heard the descriptions of scenes from Mara Jade's life, he was fascinated, but concerned he had not heard one memory that was Mary Jane's. Until after he heard Mara describe her own death. Suddenly, she spoke with a Southern accent. She began describing a stable. A horse was nearby. But, that was all she said. He found her. He found Mary Jane hidden under the story of Mara Jade. Now, the figure of Mary was answering in silence. Her eyes were still closed.

The doctor got up from his chair full of worry now. His intention was to physically wake her up. Shake her out of her trance. He reached down to her arm and touched it.

Then, all Hell broke loose.

"NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" Immediately, her arms came up fast in reaction to the touch. He had been knocked back not by physical force, but from mere shock. She ejected herself out of her seat, still screaming. "DON'T TOUCH ME! GET AWAY FROM ME! GO AWAY! Please, stop!" Her yells were no longer in the precise, smooth accent of Mara Jade. Her speech now was pure Southern drawl. Mary's voice. She spun about wildly still repeating her shouted demands.

The doctor was on the floor, drastically figuring what to do. He heard her pleas. Were they toward someone in particular? Someone specific?

"DON'T TOUCH ME! STOP!"

And, finally, she did stop. Her energy was spent. Her cries went for naught. She was overcome by extreme emotion. In a fraction of a second, Mary went from a wild screaming frenzy to a suddenly quiet form passing out onto the floor.

Comatose, once again.

* * *

Excerpts from the following sources:

_Heir to the Empire / Visions of the Future_ by Timothy Zahn

_Rebirth _by Greg Keyes

_Union_ by Michael Stackpoole

_Sacrifice_ by Karen Traviss


	10. Part 9

**Part 9**

She woke up to a particularly strong acidic smell. Her head jerked upward and she let out a shriek. She started opening her eyes and the slowly forming image of Dr. Markham came into focus. He was holding something in his hand under her nose that was the source of the smell. He kept his stare at her while she gathered her thoughts.

Then Dr. Markham became elated. "Mary! Oh, Mary, we've done it. I used the memory succession technique and it worked. I knew you were in there somewhere. Do you need anything?"

She started to answer but got as far as parting her lips before he cried out again.

"Water! You need water." He moved backward away from her and went to the water cooler beside his desk to fill a cup of water. She had been sitting at one end of the brown sofa situated at the rear of the office. He had been kneeling down before her, obviously trying to wake her. She did not remember how she reached the sofa, but a flood of memories started pouring in her mind. She now remembered who she had been.

He brought over the cup of water and handed it to her. She accepted it, though she really didn't need it. He still was overjoyed. He pulled one of the chair-beds over to sit in front of her.

"My God, I can't believe that worked. It was just a technique where I got Mara to remember a succession of scenes from her memory so fast that your memories would come through. And, by God, it worked."

"Dr. Markham," she uttered too softly.

He did not hear her. "Now, can you elaborate on that last memory of you in the stable? All that you described was that you were in the stable with the horse and someone approached you. Probably it was your boss who found you."

She spoke a little louder. "Dr. Markham."

He still was not listening. "That was such a great story Mara told. It almost had a Shakespearian quality to it. Killed by her own nephew for power. Amazing. I hadn't thought you had that much of a creative mind, Mary."

She cried out, "_Steve!_ It's still me!"

He didn't have to know the "me" whom she was referring to. All he had to do was finally hear the lack of Southern drawl in her voice. Her plain, clear voice. The blood in his face visibly drained right in front of her. "Mara," he muttered, not wanting the answer verified.

"Yes."

"Where is Mary?"

"I don't know."

The defeat filled in his expression. "So...Mary reverted back. Back to Mara."

Mara thought of his reply and his earlier remark. She now understood his theory.

"Wait...a..._kriffing_...minute," she slowly barked. "_Back_ to Mara? You believe Mary _created_ me? You don't believe I actually existed?"

The doctor sighed, obviously not wanting to divulge his theory. "I believe that you, Mara, have traits that Mary wished she had. For reasons unknown, she has hidden herself under your personality."

"_For reasons unknown?_ The answer is obvious. Something else happened at that stable."

"That is not possible. Mary's boss–Deke, I believe is his name–found Mary alone in the stable with a massive head wound and that wild horse."

"Did the authorities suspect foul play?"

"They didn't have a reason to."

"Then explain Mary's outburst just now. _Don't touch me! _Tell me you don't think she was talking to the horse."

"I don't–you heard her cries? You saw her memories?"

"Yes, I was a guest participant. I suspect Mary can see mine as well."

"We can't prove that."

Mara sneered, "Well, the next time I get a chance, I'll ask her about it."

"I'm not sure those memories are yours, anyway."

"Yes, they are! I remember everything now. I remember the smells of my world. I remember Luke's favorite meal was tomo spiced ribenes and hot chocolate because he never had them as a kid growing up on a dust ball planet. I remember how my own child slept with a stuffed Ewok he never parted with until he was four. I remember what Luke sounded like when he snored. Details like that cannot be made up on the spot, doctor. And how do you think someone like Mary could create that? You yourself were surprised that she could make it all up. What makes you think I didn't exist?"

"Your world, Mara. It cannot exit. This "force" ability is totally opposite of natural physical laws. Levitating objects, the controlling of people's minds–"

"Which you just did with me. Didn't you?"

"That's not the same."

"No? You did control my mind into seeing all those memories. I felt like I was hallucinating. I've never taken Death Sticks in my life, but that's what it felt like. How did you do that?"

He didn't notice, of course, but she was watching him very closely after that question. This was part of her training. Interrogation techniques. Getting answers not through words, but through actions. She saw the ever so small motion of his eyes flickering over to his left without turning his head, and then quickly back on her again. She followed the path of his sight line to something sitting on the edge of his desk.

The empty teacup.

She cursed, more toward herself than at him, "I'll be a Bantha's uncle. You didn't hypnotize me with mind tricks. You _drugged_ me."

His reaction was all the answer she needed. If he turned pale when he found out she was not Mary before, he was now white as a sheet at her accusation.

She continued her berating. "Your secret is out, _Steve_. I can no longer call you a doctor. I now see why your office is void of patients. And, my, that would have been some case study you would have made out of me. What fame and money it would have brought you."

"It would be a case study on Mary, not Mara."

She suddenly leaped from the sofa and jumped on top of him. She placed her right hand around his neck and folded her index finder against his windpipe, hard. He let out a small shriek before he could no longer produce sound. Or breathe. It was the first time she had seen him genuinely frightened.

She bent down to close in on his face. She uttered in a whisper very icily, "Could Mary do this? All I have to do is extend my finger here...and you stop breathing. Forever. Would this be something Mary would have learned in her sheltered life? Do you figure she created this ability? Let me tell you right now. I _am_ Mara Jade. That little drug-induced mind trip you gave me triggered my memory in full. I don't know where Mary is. Something traumatic certainly happened to her so bad that she is hiding within herself. For some reason, I took over."

He struggled to speak. She loosened her grip.

He choked once and strained to say, "Mara...Jade...died."

That hit her hard. She retracted her hand away from his neck and climbed off of him. She stood up before him and she straightened her shirt. "That is for me to deal with. Alone," she said coldly. She turned to head to the exit door to the office when she turned back and faced him again. "You never answered my earlier question. Why could I, or my world, not exist?"

He sipped some of the water he poured himself and replied, "My God, we're talking about a whole different galaxy. It's impossible."

"Impossible? Or just something else you can't prove?"

He had no reply.

Mara stated, "I get it now. In a solar system of nine planets only one is inhabited that you know of. Since you don't have the means to explore these other worlds yourself, you conclude that no other life can exist outside of your world. No other laws of physics can exit but your own. All because you cannot prove otherwise. Let me tell you from experience that there are things in this vast universe that cannot be explained. That doesn't mean they cannot exist." She paused to look at his pathetic blank reaction. "How conceded and egotistical _are_ you people of Earth? I have been to countless worlds in my lifetime. I have never pitied one more than I do this one."

And with that, she left his office.

She got back in the car and sat down in the pilot's seat. She turned the engine on and relished the cool air coming from the vents that helped her escape from the already forming heat outside. She stayed in idle. _Now what?_

She was in such a foul mood that she couldn't take going back to talk to the sweet Emma. She wanted to stay inside her anger for a while. _What would I have done in my galaxy in this situation? What would the Emperor's Hand do between failed or strenuous missions? _The answer came to her. Alcohol. And what better place to have a drink than a nightclub?

She pulled the lever to R and backed out. She reached the main road to get to Airport and headed downtown towards the address she looked up on the computer system the previous night. She knew where _Fantasmas_ was.

As she drove for a while and then sat in traffic limbo at the apex of Airport, she wondered if drinking was the Jedi way.

_You are no longer a Jedi, girl. I'm no longer anything._

She remembered what she told Luke on their first ever encounter. _Welcome back to the world of mere mortals_. That's where she was. Like it or not. Did that mean there were no consequences if she had flashes of extreme anger? Could she hate now without paying the price? There was no longer a Dark Side to succumb to while on this planet. She almost wished Luke was with her just so she could gloat about that. He was always telling her that her famous anger could be a direct path to the Dark Side of the Force. Now, there was no Force. And she was very angry now.

Cut down by a Sith-in-training. Her own nephew. Jacen. If he thought the Jedi were to be merciless when they found out he murdered her, wait until his father, Han Solo, found out. And killed by a poison dart? Somehow, there was no honor in that manner of death, even for a wanna-be Dark Force murderer. _Some Sith you're going to be, Jacen. I hope killing me was worth it. _She had survived countless traps and battles with ruthless characters all her life, as the Hand and a Jedi. She battled and won over an illness given to her by Nom Anor, Yuuzahn Vong villain extra ordinaire. Hell, she even survived raising a teenager, who may well be the decent and wise human being whom she and Luke brought him up to become.

Yet, for all her skills as a fighter and assassin, how did she fall for a cheap Force vision of her own son, when she knew he was nowhere nearby? She knew that was the moment Jacen had been waiting for. And she handed it to him on a silver platter. Jacen didn't kill her. She killed herself. She paid the price for her stupidity. She remembered there was no real pain when the needle struck her. Only surprise. Regret. Anger. By the time the poison set in, she couldn't act on her anger like she had in the past. Then, she felt...nothing. Until she woke up again.

As Mary Jane Skyler.

Was this reincarnation? If it was, how, or why, did she retain the memories of her past life? Was Mary Jane still deep inside her coma while Mara took over? Would that be fair?

How she so wished there could be someone to just come down and give her all the answers. If she was dead, would it be an angel? She didn't think of Force users as angels. That hit her. Why didn't she dissolve into the Force? She retained her physical self. Was she not worthy to be a Force-ghost? Had all of her support of evil in her first life negated that privilege? Did she keep her body for evidence of the poison? She could have easily have just told Luke and Ben who killed her as spirit in the Force. But, how would they prove that?

She stopped thinking about it right there. Great, I'm thinking like the people of Earth, now. She decided that traffic jams were not the best way to think of nothing for a while. That drink would help that. She finally reached downtown and made turns here and there to come to the address of _Fantasmas_. She parked in front of it in a diagonal parking spot. The building stretched the entire block. Blue neon signs adorning the facade were now dormant. She could imagine them being lit up and look similar to many ad signs on Coruscant at night.

She exited the car and headed to the entrance. There was an elaborate design on two glass doors. She pulled on the handle...and the doors did not move. Locked. She looked first for ways to break in, but decided that would not go over well with authorities. She noticed a locking mechanism attaching both doors at the bottom. She could try and pick it. Then, she realized. If Mary worked here...she reached for her keys and saw there were three others beside the car key. She tried them one by one. The last one was it. She turned it and she opened one side of the glass door.

Inside was a space that looked even larger than it did from the outside. She walked through a small hallway. A long bar was to her right with rows of bottles on shelves behind it. A long mirror ran down its length. Directly in front of her, several feet away, was a raised platform that was for dancing. She saw various golden posts coming through the floor spaced a few feet away from each other. There were several chairs, tables, and sofas riddled in between her and the dance floor.

The place was deserted. "Hello," she called out, making her voice echo in the empty space. She edged closer to the bar with no hint of anyone else inside. She noted the lines of bottles behind the opposite counter. She was just about thinking to partake in one when she heard it.

A thud sounded to her left and she saw a door swing open from the bar side. From out of a doorway, most likely to an office, a figure appeared quickly. She couldn't get a description yet. As soon as she identified the object in his outstretched hand as a weapon, she acted too quick to see who the beholder was. She threw herself sideways behind her to dive under a nearby table for cover.

"I know you are here," the male voice called out in an even stranger accent than she heard on Earth yet. If she had to compare, it sounded like a Neimoidian's accent. "I heard you pick lock. You work for Carlos? I tell him not today."

She deduced that this had to be the manager and she crawled out from under the table and stood straight up. He spotted her in no time and pointed the silver colored weapon at her.

"No," she sighed, "I do believe I work for you."

The man was short, brown-haired with specks of gray, and looked to be around fifty-ish. He wore a full facial beard and wore a white button-down shirt with black slacks. She was staring at the barrel of the business end of the strange looking blaster. It was smaller than anything BlasTech would make, but larger than her mini-blaster she used to carry under her sleeve. Once he saw her and identified her, he lowered his arm.

"Mary?"

"Sort of. You must be Deke."

"Yes. Why you here? I thought you recover from coma."

"Strangely, this body survived the coma with flying colors. It's Mary's mind that's in question."

"Yes. Luke tell me you are not yourself. We were worried. But, why are you here?"

"Oh, I just came back from a false doctor who subjected me with, I suspect, an illegal drug-induced mind trip. He made me reveal that I died in a previous life. So, I needed a drink." She could see the confusion on his face. "By the way, I'm not Mary. I'm Mara Jade."

"You not Mary?"

"No. Mary is off somewhere in her own little world. That happens with a traumatic event. Which you could help in answering some questions."

"What about?"

"The day you found Mary in the stable."

"But, you were there...no, you were not there."

"Yes, that wasn't me. At that point of time I was in a rather unglamourous fight to the death with my nephew." Which she suddenly realized may not have been true. She never considered _when _she had lived. In Earth time, she could have been alive last week...or a thousand years ago.

He noted, "You no speak with accent."

"No, but you sure have a strange one. Where are you from?"

"I am from Ukraine. But, you know this. Or do you? My name is Deke Werner. Mary knew my Ukraine name. I never trust no one else with it."

"Mary knew; I don't."

"My God, is true. You not Mary."

"Glad we're on the same page. Now, how about that drink?"

"Sure. Belly up to bar." He set the weapon down on the bar counter and went behind it to reach the bottles as Mara pulled herself onto a barstool. He stood in front of the bottles facing her. "So, what you drink?"

"I take it you don't know what a Fogblaster is. Or a Star Dazer?"

"Uh...no. What these? New fad drinks?"

"Hardly. No, drinks from my world. Hey, Emma mentioned a whiskey. Made by a Jack Daniels."

"Ah yes. A classic. I prefer Crown Royale myself. Most people think Ukraine people like only vodka. Not true. No wrong in Jack Daniels. You want straight or on rocks?"

Mara stared at him and frowned. "Why would I want rocks in my drink?"

Deke chuckled. "No. Rocks is ice."

"Oh. Then, yes. I want rocks."

"Coming up. You know, I always had hard time to get Mary to drink with me."

"She was a dancer here?"

"For while. And she dance only with clothing. First, men not like. Mary was so good dancer, the men started not to mind." He took two glasses from below the bar and placed two frozen cubes of ice in each. He poured some whiskey into each and he handed one to Mara.

She took the glass and sipped it. "Wow. Strong. But good." Her next motion was in downing the entire contents of the glass with a flick of her wrist. "Oh yes. _Much_ better than your ale. Another?"

Deke stared at her with a grin. "I never see Mary slam drink so fast. Strange." He poured her more.

"I'll promise to go slower this time." She sipped again but set it down. She reflected on something and said, "There was a time when I wanted to be a dancer myself. I certainly had the body for it, even as a teenager. Palpatine–that's who raised me then–he took me to the Coruscanti Ballet once. I so wanted to be on that stage. He wouldn't hear of it. He had other training planned for me."

"What kind of training?"

"All types. The kind that made people cringe when they saw me. Then again, I was also trained to make them not see me when I was coming for them."

"Really? Mara...Jade, is it? What were you in your past life?"

"You seem to be very accepting all of a sudden."

Deke shrugged. "I already know you not Mary."

"The accent gave it away."

"The whiskey. Mary would never touch it." After Mara nodded, Deke asked again what she was in her world.

She sipped again and replied back with no small amount of ego, "I was a personal assassin for an Emperor."

"Mmm...not much demand for such job here. Maybe we need one."

"Are you saying you can alter Mary's job description?"

"Oh, not yet. I must see with my own eyes."

She eyed the weapon nearby on the counter. "Is that your version of a blaster?"

"I know not of 'blaster'. It is my gun, yes."

"Can I see it?"

He reached for it and there was a faint clicking sound as he handled it before he laid it in front of her. "You never held gun before?"

"Several. Just not one from Earth. But, I'm guessing you clicked the safety on just now, right?"

"I see you no miss much."

"No, I don't." She picked it up and got a feel for the trigger. "Lighter than I thought."

"It is a Rugar Mark III, semi-auto, single action, .22 caliber. Some think .22 is not, how you say, efficient. It does good job enough."

"Trigger mechanism feels harder. Sight line is straightforward. What does this thing shoot?"

"Ah, special bullet." He motioned with his palm that wanted the gun to show her something. She placed it inside and he took it like he was going to shoot but his index finger triggered another button and out popped a magazine from inside the stock handle. She had been used to power packs for blasters and she saw this was similar. Until he showed her what was inside.

She looked and quipped, "It shoots pieces of metal?"

"Exploding tip pieces of metal."

"That could get messy."

"Yes." He put the magazine back inside the gun and laid it down on the counter again. He took a swig of his own drink and then asked her, "What you want to know about Mary in my stable?"

"Your stable?"

"Yes. Mary had love of horses. I have purchased a few here and there. I let her ride when time permits. I warn her about Crescent Fire. We had hard time to train. I had a buyer for the Mustang, but they not make good ride sometime."

"Mustang? That's the type of car Mary has."

"Ah, I know you not from here. They named that car after the horse."

She nodded to the information and went on. "So, you were already there. Along with Luke and Lynn."

"Yes. I tell her about Crescent Fire and how wild she was and Mary was determine to tame. She was gone for maybe half hour or more and we heard horse go wild and Mary scream."

"What did she scream?"

"I don't know. She just scream. No words. Anyway, I was closest and ran to stable and found Mary on ground with blood on her head. Luke and Lynn come help get you in my truck to take you to hospital. She not wake up for a year. Until now."

"Technically, she still hasn't. The so-called doctor actually got close to reaching her." She sipped again. There was no one else there besides you three?"

"Not that I know of. My men were here and Victor was in New Orleans."

"Victor?"

"My son. He is in business with me."

Before she could ask about Victor any further, the sound of the glass doors swinging open was heard and emerging from the short hallway were four very dark-skinned men. They were all young and they each had the most gold and silver jewelry she had ever seen on any male in her life. In each of their hands were weapons of some kind. Three had handguns and the fourth had a longer one that looked greater in power.

They came forward but they split as they neared. Mara took note of their positions. One stayed by the entrance and another went around to their right to stand near the door where Deke had burst out of earlier. The two remaining came directly forward head on to them.

"Yo, Deke," said the one slightly in front of the other.

"Who let you in, Marko?"

"Door was open. I figure you was invitin' us in. Hey, Mary, you're back."

"That remains to be seen," she replied blankly.

"Whoa, whole new accent. What, you come outta a coma and get you some religion?"

"I certainly came back with something. You boys need something yourselves?"

"Direct. I like it. Matter of fact, your boss here owes some money to Carlos. We his collection agency."

Before Deke could answer, Mara was quicker. She spoke fast and evenly. "I believe he told Carlos not today."

Marko looked back at Deke. "You makin' Miss Thang here do all your talkin', homeboy?"

"She is assistant manager," Deke said matter-of-fact.

"And here all along I thought that was Victor's position. So, what, now that she's back she be taking his place? Victor ain't gonna like 'dat."

"Victor does what I tell him. Now run off to Carlos and tell him I will have money tomorrow."

"Delay in payment, Deke. Carlos don't like delays. What's the hold up?"

"Let's say one tenant is slow to persuade."

"Hey, why didn't you come to us? We specialize in persuasion."

"I have my own people. You know this. And they have more loyalty."

"Loyalty. Yeah. Heard 'dat. But, lemme tell ya, Deke. Carlos was very specific if we didn't collect today. I mean, you do see my boys here."

Deke sneered, "You cannot hurt me. You know why. So does Carlos. This is why Carlos not show up here."

"There was no need to." Marko cocked his gun with a loud click. "Now, way I see it, we have two against four." Marko looked over at the gun sitting on the bar counter. "And you have that pea-shooter there. So, I figure, odds' in our favor."

Mara had watched and listened to the scene carefully. That last remark triggered another memory from her past life. Something Han Solo always said. _Never tell me the odds. _She had to act quickly or she may end up dying...again.

She spoke to Marko as she gestured to his weapon. "What kind of gun is that?"

Marko stepped even closer to her and extended his arm so he could point his black gun directly at her head.

Mara did not flinch.

He warned, "Would you like a closer look? Now, I don't have a problem wit you, Mary. You always seemed quiet, mostly because you went off hiding when me or Carlos came in."

She spoke evenly, not taking her eyes off his. "I'm not hiding now."

"I see that. That's either a good thing to change after you been in a coma, or maybe stupidity. I said I don't have a problem wit you..._until_ I have a problem wit you."

She checked her position and theirs. It was a perfect setup. Now, she only had to make Mary's body perform. There was only one shot at this. She replied back at him with no fear behind her words, "Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Oh, I know."

"Don't you realize the mistake you're making right at this very moment?"

"Why don't you enlighten me?"

She paused, seemingly to consider, and said back, "Why not?"

With a blur of motion, she brought her left arm up to jerk his gun arm up. A shot was fired from it but it went wide to the ceiling. In that same moment, she made a fist with her right hand and landed a punch to thrust it against his chest. The action knocked the wind out of him and he went down, which also loosened his grip on his gun. She took her right hand and pulled the gun from his hand and got her own grip on the trigger. She aimed down at the man nearest them, who was already preparing to fire himself. He never got a shot off.

She pulled the hard trigger and fired a shot at his upper leg. Right about at the same spot where she herself was injected by a poison dart once. He went down in pain. Once he landed on the floor, blood from his wound started spurting out. The other two guarding the exits were also prepared to fire. She could never get them both spread out as far as they were. She was good, but not _that_ good. She had another target in mind.

She pointed the gun at Marko's forehead point blank. She yelled out, "Don't! You shoot; he's dead in an instant. And I really don't want to get messy. Deke, collect their toys, if you could."

Deke grabbed his own gun from the counter and proceeded to grab each of their guns. The whole time he did so he wore a wide grin that he could not seem to wipe off.

She looked into Marko's eyes. They were no longer filled with confidence or ego. She could no longer tell what people felt, but she sure could see the fear in his eyes now. She also would like to have believed that he was no longer staring at a mousy thin woman with long black hair and plain brown eyes. He was looking up at a tall woman with attractive facial features, fiery red-gold hair, and the most brilliant of green eyes flashing her anger back at him as if they could pierce metal like butter.

_Yes, Marko, I am the Emperor's Hand. Glad to make your acquaintance._

But, she didn't say that to him. It would not make sense. Instead she said to him, "By the way, your mistake–pointing your weapon too close to your victim. May want to think about that next time."

"You...you really ain't Mary, are you?"

"Really? What gave it away? The name is Mara Jade. I'm sort of a temporary, or I hope temporary, replacement for Mary at the moment. Now, as Deke stated, he will have the money for Carlos tomorrow. Care to send him that message?"

Marko made no movement.

"You can nod, can't you?"

He did. Slowly.

"Good. Deke, you got them?"

"Yes, mishka."

"Mishka?" she repeated.

"'Dear one' in Ukraine."

"Oh." She turned to face Marko again. "Now, if I remove this gun, am I going to have a problem wit you?"

He shook his head.

She nodded herself and took the gun away. She let him stand by himself.

"Your man may need some medical attention. Get some pressure on the leg quickly."

"Can I have my gun back?"

"I love how you have your priorities in order." She fiddled with the gun and found the lever she was looking for. The magazine popped out of the handle just like Deke's did. She tossed the gun to Markos and kept the magazine. After he caught it, she said, "I bet you have more magazines for it."

The three men then helped the fourth up who was in pain. They limped him out with two on either side of him and they all disappeared into the hallway and out the glass doors.

She looked back at Deke. "See enough with your own eyes now?"

"That was incredible. You just wake up from coma three days ago but you handle four armed men with only one shot fired. How you know which to shoot first?"

She explained, "Had to take out the one closest first."

"He was closer than other two?"

"No. Because he had a larger weapon. The other two had handguns with not much range. The guy I took out almost had his drawn by the time I shot him. And, wow, are those triggers hard. The blowback threw my arm up. Good thing I was aiming low. If I pointed at his chest I would have blown his head off."

"You really were assassin."

"In a past life. A _really_ past life."

"You need another drink? Or a medal? After this, I not like to see your encore."

She laughed. "No. That sobered me up a little. Maybe I needed a bit of action with what happened this morning. I've had one full day of events and it's not even half over yet. Think it's time I headed home. Or, at least Mary's home. Maybe I don't have a home anymore."

"Eh, you make home wherever you are."

Mara considered. "Maybe. Perhaps it's the people you're around that create your home." She shook her head. "Ok, getting way too profound. We'll talk later. Thanks for the drink, Deke."

"Mara."

"Yes?"

"My real name is Dekterai Vernonov."

She nodded. "You're all right–uh, can I stay with Deke?"

"Yes. And you not so bad, either."

"Thanks, Deke."


	11. Part 10

**Part 10**

Mara was sitting in the middle of Airport Boulevard traffic wondering why she felt better after a dose of violence. Was it part of her nature to require violence? That line of questioning brought her to an even bigger question.

Was all violence evil?

Despite the lack of a Dark Side of the Force on Earth, she had already been witness to evil acts that very morning. How could anyone perform evil acts and not fall into a dark side inside of themselves, Force or no Force? Was Dr. Markham evil for drugging her for his own purpose? Those men at the nightclub were certainly about to do an evil deed for Carlos. Was Jacen evil for murdering her? He, at least, tried to give an explanation for his evil act. He told her that killing her would bring peace to the people of their galaxy. She thought of his words after the fact. Whom was he trying to convince on his reason for murder? Her, or himself?

She sat still in idle traffic and she screamed at herself; _The next time I don't want to think I will not__use this blasted Airport Boulevard_. She yelled out to no one in particular, "Let's go! Move it!"

A voice called out from a vehicle to her left that was as idle as her own. "You tell 'em, babe!"

She snuck a glance beside her and saw a small freighter of a truck. The owner of the voice was a rather unattractive man with oily clothes and hat. She smiled sheepishly back at him. Big mistake.

"Hey, baby. You as fine as that car?"

She kept her smile while suggesting, "You want to keep all of your two teeth?"

He frowned and lucky for him the traffic started moving. That still did not prevent him from yelling out from behind him, "Catch you later, babe!"

"Not in this lifetime. Or my next." _Great, I'm one of them already._

She reached the turnoff from Airport that led her to Magnolia Way. She approached Mary's house and saw that there was another vehicle parked in the driveway. Emma's car was gone.

The new vehicle hardly looked new. It was a truck with a small cab in front and a large opening in the back. The body had once been cherry red and now it was pale orange. Patches of rust were speckled in various places. The drivers side mirror was hanging down by one thin wire. The opening of the trailer hitch was missing and what replaced it was an improvised wire mesh.. The vehicle looked as if it could fall apart at any given moment.

She turned around in the dead end and parked on the side of the street on the curb. Once she sat there parked, she stared at the contraption in the driveway with disbelief. "The _Falcon_ was in better shape than that thing," she muttered.

She exited the car and headed up the driveway keeping a eye on the vehicle as if it would suddenly explode merely because she walked near it. She heard a door slam and she saw Benjamin coming out of the carport side door. In his left hand was a strange rifle. Following him was the hefty figure of Luke Wallace.

Benjamin reached closer to her and he asked with interest, "Did you get better from the doctor?"

Mara sighed. "No, I'm still Mara. Where you going?"

"Me and Dad are going to paint ball tomorrow," he explained excitedly.

"Paint ball?"

Luke came up and spoke from behind Benjamin. "She ain't gonna know what that is, Spike. She ain't even from this planet."

Ben looked back at Mara, confused. "You mean you're an alien?"

She forced back a chuckle. "No. I'm as human as you and your...," she trailed off as she looked at Luke, who was busy cleaning out his ears with his thick index finger, and considered again, finishing with, "well, I'm as human as you are."

"C'mon, Spike, let's go. We gotta big day tomorrow. I wanna stop at Food World and get a case of Old Milwaukee."

Mara asked him, "Why are you taking him this weekend? I wanted to spend some time with him."

"Yeah? What ch'you gonna do with him? Talk? Yeah, he just is lovin' him some convo. Mary ain't never done nothing with him, why should you be any different?"

Mara had to think about that. What would she do with an eleven-year-old boy? What had she done with her own Ben at that age? What activities had they done together? If she had lived on, she could have given Ben some pointers at being a sniper.

_You used a folding stock Karpaki? Karpaki does get the job done, son, but a Delisima has better range and easier loading action for multiple shots. Why I used one once on a dirty Senator... _

She tied off that thought. What else had she done with her Ben as he grew up. Training? There had been no time for playing. Too many battles. Too many fights. Too much violence.

Before she could ponder more, Luke spoke again. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Nope, I had the paint ball time scheduled months ago and Spike ain't shut up about going ever since."

"Does it hurt you to call him Benjamin?"

"It hurt you to call him a Wallace. You named him Benjamin after your grand daddy. I wanted to name him Rusty. That would have been a hoot. Our own NASCAR driver in the family."

"Whatever that is. Where's Emma?"

"Aw, she had to run to some places. She just left minutes ago. I'll be bringing him back prob'ly around four on Sunday."

She sneered, "Just like that and you take over."

"You done took over Mary's life, whatever life she had. She ain't never even been with another man since she divorced me. Been too depressed. But, the judge still didn't see me as fit. But, if it brings my Spike joy, I'm taking him to paint ball."

"Did you even ask what he wanted to do?"

Ben answered, "But, I wanna go...uh...uh...,"

Both she and Luke stated in unison, "Mara."

After a scornful look at Luke, Mara said to Ben, "Maybe I don't want you playing with rifles at such a young age."

Ben shot back at her, "Maybe I don't have to do what you say. You ain't my mother 'cept you looking like her."

Even if a star cruiser had fallen from the sky and landed on top of her, the impact would have had less effect than his words just then. She could feel the blood drain from Mary's body. _You ain't my mother. _Had she been Ben's mother all his life?

_Too many battles. On and off the battlefield._

She was so numb with his cold fact that she scarcely heard Luke tell him to get in the truck. She kept frozen until Luke started the engine. It produced a loud noise from under the hood that sounded like it would explode. Luke backed the clunker out of the driveway and sped off to disappear around the corner.

And, thus, Mara Jade was alone.

She could not remember a time when she had been completely alone. Because of her and Luke's Force bond, she had never felt alone. She had been used to the idea that she could reach into her mind at any given moment and embrace his no matter how far apart they were. To feel his loving touch anytime she needed it was indescribable. It had been a fact to say that since she married Luke Skywalker, she could never feel alone.

Until now.

She had now entered a body of a woman on a world–no, a galaxy that had no knowledge of the Force. She had finally discovered the limit of distance to where their Force bond had stopped working. Except for the very first few minutes after she woke up as Mary, the Force had left her. Abandoned her. Or, did she abandon it?

She wandered aimlessly around the house not knowing her destination.

Her destination. Where would she go? Would she be stuck inside Mary Jane Skyler until she herself dies? Would she die too? Again? Would she become one with the Force then?

She _chose _not to be one with the Force after she died. She remembered Luke tell about how Obi Wan Kenobi sacrificed himself in a selfless act to save him, Leia, and Han on the first Death Star. She remembered Palpatine relating how Vader killed Kenobi from his point of view. Obi Wan simply allowed Vader to cut him down. On purpose. Yet, there was no body to cut. Kenobi immediately melded into the Force and Luke could hear his voice speak to him within minutes of his death.

Or was that considered death?

If she had chosen to meld, would her existence still be inside her own galaxy? Was the fact that she rejected that meld the reason why she had been injected into a comatose patient on a whole new world in a totally different galaxy? A planet that had no Force.

She had been without the Force before in her life. It was right after the Battle of Endor. She felt alone then too. As evil as he was, Palpatine and her also had a Force bond. Though it was not nearly as loving as her and Luke's, it was no less comforting to know she would never be alone.

_No_, she discovered, _alone isn't the right term for what I'm feeling now._

And at that moment, finding herself sitting inside in one of the swings on Ben's old swing set, she had never felt more lonely.

She considered. She could become Deke's new heavy hand. She could become once again the loyal assassin who thrived on pre-meditated violence. If she had to be stuck as Mary, she could become a new Emperor's Hand. Except on this world, she would be...The Ukrainian's Hand.

She shook out that phrase from her mind. She then calmly asked herself, why would she want that? Was she happier as the Emperor's Hand? Was she not happier once Luke had finally proposed to her amidst their eminent deaths? Was she not happier when Ben was born through her sickness via all three of the Skywalker family and all coming out healthy as ever? She knew the answer.

It was the question that was harder to ask.

How could she go on living without her Luke and her Ben?

She suddenly had an epiphany. _This is my Hell. To have a life separate from all that I held dear._

_Oh, how I miss them. I miss Luke's touch while in bed together. That frustrating, yet soothing, calm Tatooine farmboy nature even showed through in the most intimate times of sharing. I miss the sound of Ben calling me Mom, even if it was in contempt for not allowing him to take the speeder in the Coruscanti night life._

She longed to hear their voices again. Even if it was an argument. No couple could argue as logically as she and Luke Skywalker. It was a scary fact that whenever she and Ben reached a spat between them, it almost felt like she were debating herself. Ben had developed her own sense of logic.

What was even more scary was the realization that she may never see nor hear her husband nor her son anymore.

And that idea hit her harder than Jacen's poison dart. _That_ was her death.

She remembered the short sharp pain once the needle struck her with great force. The pain lasted a few seconds. This pain had been withheld and saved up for a moment like this. It wasn't the pain of losing her life that she cared about. It was the pain she felt for Luke and Ben losing _her_.

All her life she could control emotions. As an assassin, she could shut them off like a switch. She had mastered the art of disassociation. After being an assassin for decades, that switch became rusted in the off position.

Until Luke Skywalker came into her life and started to erode it. Little by little, the rust came loose from his continued compassion for her, even when she denied it. His stubbornness kept chipping away at that switch. Finally, after a decade, the switch came loose from her shell and from it emerged a woman who greeted her emotions with open arms.

And in those arms, she welcomed Luke.

She admitted that she could still fiddle with the switch. Just the fact that she shut Luke out at the end and went off hunting his own nephew on her own was evidence of that.

_Gone hunting for a few days. Don't be mad at me, farmboy._

Her last words to him. And they weren't even spoken. A note. She couldn't remember what the very last words she would have said to him were. Did Luke deserve a last note as his remembrance of her last action? After all he had given her?

The pain, the despair, the regret. All carried too much weight for that switch to bear. Emotion now caught up to her. An overload created pressure in her eyes. Salty fluid began to pour out. She buried her head in her hands in an attempt to hide them. It was of no use. The tears spilled out onto her jeans and to the green grass.

At that moment, Mara Jade knew nothing about control.

Her sobs went on without thought. Inside Mary's mind, she formed images of Luke Skywalker. His styled blonde hair later in their life was no longer the scraggly mess it had been when she first met him. His brilliant blue eyes were as penetrating as her green. She had never thought about it until then, but the colors of their lightsabers reflected the opposite of the color of their eyes.

She then formed an image of a small child with red-blonde hair. He was so happy as a child. When they used to visit him in the small amount of quiet times during the Yuuzahn Vong war, they had played with him. She would bounce him on her leg while Luke teased him with his beloved stuffed Ewok. They played. Not enough. _Too many battles._

Sounds came into focus as well. She could hear Luke's snoring. Annoying as it was in person, she now regarded it as part of a hypnotic symphony keeping in time with the rhythm.

She heard Ben's outburst of laughter. It was a strange hybrid of Luke's famous chuckle and her sarcastic sneer.

She cherished the sights and sounds of her loved ones that were swimming inside Mary's mind. _At least I have these. No one can take them away from me._

Another sound was produced but she couldn't quite make it out.

It was a strange squeaking noise that repeated in the same intervals. Back and forth.

She lifted her head and suddenly realized that the sound had been real. It was the sound of the swing next to her.

A girl was in the swing and she was propelling it to go higher and higher. Mara could feel the shaking of the swing set as each pass went by.

Before Mara could speak, the girl spoke first.

"Do you know what's fun? Getting high...enough...going forward...and..." She reached the highest point forward and she ejected herself out of the swing to fly through the air. Her waif-like body sailed and she let out a loud, "Wheeeee." She then landed hard on the grass and as she turned on her back, she winced in pain. "The flying part–fun. The sudden stop on the ground–not so much."

The girl looked to be in her early twenties. Her hair was even more ebony colored than Mary's, and it was more wild and less straight. She wore black pants and a black tank top. Her pale white skin was in such deep contrast to her clothing that it made Mara believe the girl had never spent anytime in the sun. As she laid there on the ground, she turned her body towards Mara. Hanging around her neck was a necklace. On the end of it was a large metal symbol consisting of a loop on top of a cross that Mara had never seen before.

She spoke to the strange girl. "Are you a neighbor of Mary's?"

"I'm everyone's neighbor. I have my own little neighborhood and everything. You could even call it a Land of Make Believe like Mr. Rogers." She seemed to consider something. "I don't know, _Mr Roger's Neighborhood _was ok and all, but I was more of a fan of_ The Electric Company_. Remember Rita Moreno?" She cupped her hands around her mouth and projected the phrase, "Hey you guys!" She went back to her regular voice. "It's where Morgan Freeman got his start." She started at Mara with a blank stare. "Why am I telling you this? You're not from here."

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I have so many names. For now, you can just call me Didi. That was the name I took when I was last here."

"You're just visiting? When was your last visit here?"

"Oh, roughly fifteen years ago in linear terms." Didi began to pull herself up from the ground and brushed the blades of grass clinging to her clothes.

Mara figured, "That would be when you were five years old. Seven years tops."

Didi chuckled, "Try seven _hundred_ plus millennia. Once a while I come down just to visit. No work. Nobody to help along their way. I just come for the fun." She went over to the opposite side of the swing set to fetch a black cane leaning on the A frame. She picked it up and swung it backwards on her shoulder. "This visit is all business."

"Uh huh. What's with the cane?"

"Cane? Oh, this isn't a cane. I guess you've never seen an umbrella before." She fiddled with the handle and the cane opened to reveal a black shield. "See. Usually, it's for protection from rain. I use it here for the shade. No sun in my realm." She closed it down.

"Ok. Seven hundred millennia old? No sun in your realm? Who exactly are you?"

Didi answered casually, "I'm everyone. And no one."

"Can we be more cryptic?"

Didi chuckled. "If you think I'm cryptic, you ought to meet my brother, Morpheus."

"What are you doing here?"

"Persistent, aren't we? I just saw you were having a rough time just now and thought you needed company. But...if you want to be left alone and wallow in your sorrow of regret, then fine. I have things I can do." She reached into her pants pocket and produced a tissue and handed it to Mara. "Here. You can clean up those eyes."

Mara took it and said, "Thanks. Why aren't you doing your things instead of talking to me?"

"Wow. Were you this pushy with Luke?"

"That Luke isn't mine. Look, I don't know if you're some kooky neighbor who likes to play mental games with Mary or what. If you haven't heard, I'm not Mary."

"I know. I know everything. Or...almost everything. My brother loves to think he knows everything. Not even my dear family are that omniscient. And, by the way, when I said Luke, I meant Skywalker, Mara." Didi did an about face and headed toward the sliding glass doors.

Mara stood in confusion for a split second before she quickly caught up with Didi. "Wait. You just called me Mara. How did you know?"

"I already told you. I know everything."

"You said _almost_ everything."

"Can't get much past you, can I? Ok, confession time, Sister Jade. There was a time when I was confuzzled about your sitch. At first I thought it was my brother Dream's doing. Or my other brother, Destiny. Then I considered where you came from and it all clicked."

Mara stood in front of her Didi's path."Hey! Stop. You know too much about this for you not to tell me about it."

"I will, I will. Patience, young grasshopper. Right now, I need a Dr. Pepper."

Mara gave her a blank stare. "Don't think a doctor would help now. Besides, I may be done with all doctors."

Didi gave Mara a soft punch in the arm as she walked around her. "No, silly. _Dr. Pepper_. Soft drink. The Official Beverage of the Southern States of the USA. I just know Mary has a stash. Been dying to have one for a while." Didi paused. "Oh, for a better phrasing."

Didi reached the sliding glass doors and opened them. She entered and Mara followed.

Mara remarked, "Do you always come in a strangers house and take their food and drink?"

Didi turned back at Mara but kept walking backwards towards the kitchen. "I don't know any strangers. When I come to visit people they already know me. Besides, I was invited."

She turned to face the kitchen and approached the refrigerator. Mara leaned on the kitchen counter bar and repeated, "Invited?"

Didi opened the refrigerator and shouted with girlish glee, "Ah, ha! I knew she had some. And it's not freakin' diet, thank the maker." She reached inside and grabbed an aluminum can of Dr. Pepper. The door closed and she popped open the top of the can. She took a few gulps before stating, "Ah, I have to have the sweet stuff."

"Too much blood in your sugar?"

Didi was in mid-sip when she almost spewed the contents upon hearing Mara. "Quick."

Mara continued. "Who invited you?"

Didi finished her latest gulp and said, "You did, deary."

Mara replied, "How can I invite someone I don't even know? When did I invite you?"

Didi tilted her head back to empty what was left in the can. "Oh, these are the greatest. The carbonation just tickles your throat, don't it?"

"I guess. Look, if I don't get some answers–"

"You'll what? Assassinate me. Like you did when you were...what did they call you? Emperor's Hand?" Didi took the empty can and crushed it with both hands. She threw it with precision and it landed inside of the trash can a few feet away. "Yes! Two points! And, yes you did invite me. You thought the magical phrase while in a traffic jam. I wish. You wished someone would come down and give you all the answers." She spread her arms out as if she were presenting herself. "Here I am."

"Ok, tell me."

Didi put her head down, her right cheek on the surface of the counter while still looking at Mara. "Well, I can't divulge _all_ secrets of the Universe to you. That would be cheating. And I can't just tell you. Therein lies the problem. Your situation isn't one to just tell at Story Time."

"All right, then show me."

"Do you trust me?"

"How can I? You haven't given me any answers yet."

"You think by me giving you the right answers will make you trust me more? You believe there are right answers in this? You are actually closer than you think in coming up with the answer to your own question since you came into this world. It must be your inquisitive training."

"No, it's my curious nature."

"You say tomato..."

"I just want to know the answers."

"To everything? And when you find them all, Mara, what then?"

"That's a stupid question."

"There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots."

"You calling me an idiot, Didi?"

Didi smiled in remembrance. "My brother had a protégée long ago and one of his famous plays has a line. 'Life is tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'"

"Nice. Ok, what if I were to take a leap of faith here."

"It won't cost you a dime. Or a credit in your world."

"What do you want me to do?"

Didi stood up erect and asked bubbly, "Does Mary have a mirror? Preferably a long one?"

"Next to her bed. Why?"

"Because, I'm going to show you." She skipped through the kitchen and into the family room while twirling her umbrella. "Down this way I take it?" she called from the hallway.

Mara started following her. "The end bedroom."

Didi called out, "Well, I wasn't about to think Mary has a dangerous attitude."

Mara entered Mary's bedroom after Didi had done so already. Right where Mara said there was a long rectangular full length mirror. The two of them stood before it, their reflections staring back at them.

"Perfectalicious!" cried Didi.

Mara looked at Didi's reflection and asked, "I've been meaning to ask what that symbol is on your necklace."

"Oh, my ankh. A symbol of great power."

"What kind of power?"

"Life. But, more on that later. Now, who do you see in the reflection?"

Mara looked at the frail thin features and dark, straight, and long hair once again through a mirror as she did on the first day she awoke. She shrugged and stated, "Mary Jane Skyler." She looked back at the physical Didi.

Didi just smiled cryptically and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Well, of course–" she looked back at the reflection and almost lost her breath during the act of gasping.

Instantly, the image showing back at her was no longer Mary. She noted the fine red-gold hair. Her skin was smoother with less blemishes. She raised her hand to her face to touch her cheek. Her clothing now consisted of her favorite one piece black tunic. There was a utility belt but no blaster. Nor a lightsaber. The blue jeans and psychedelic shirt of Mary's were gone.

Mara Jade was now staring back at herself as she had been seen in her own galaxy. She leaned closer to the surface of the mirror. Sure enough, her brilliant green eyes flashed back at her not in anger, but through pure joy at seeing her own features again. For several minutes, she merely gawked at her own image. She put a hand to the surface, but instead of remarking how real the image was, she noticed her hand. Her physical hand. It was still Mary's. She looked down at herself and Mary's features were still present. She looked back at the image and still saw Mara Jade.

_How was this happening?_

To answer her, Didi supplied, "Your physical self there exists on a separate plane than this one. In this parallel, you have the physical form of Mary Jane." She nodded at the mirror. "In that plane, you are projecting your mental self, Mara Jade Skywalker. Pretty nifty, huh?"

Mara found her voice. "I asked you this before and never received a straight answer. Who _are_ you? And I want a definition this time."

"A definition, huh? There's a tall order. How about this; I'm the physical personification of an anthropomorphic being. I have six siblings and we make up the sometime dysfunctional family known as The Endless. My brother, Morpheus, is a.k.a Dream."

"Then who are you?"

"Honey, if you of all people haven't figured that out yet...I can tell you that I am your friend. I am everyone's friend, though they sometimes think of me as their enemy."

Mara thought of Didi's definition and her attitude since she met her. Bubbly. Daring. Kind. Soothing. The powerful symbol signifying Life. "It would have to start with a D. There's Dream and Destiny. Hmm...Delight? No. I know. Delirium."

Didi laughed. "Oh, that's a first. Wait till I tell my sister, _Delirium_, I was mistaken for her. She'd have a field day, and that's literally. She'd spend some time in a field with poppies or some other wild flowers." She paused and calmly stated, "I waited for you. I waited and you never showed."

Mara dared to ask, "Where did you wait for me?"

"Kavan. I believe you called the area the Hapes Cluster. I waited right after your–"

"Death," Mara finished. She gulped and looked at her with Mary's brown eyes. "Am I to go...with you...now?"

"Oh heavens, no. Remember, I've got things to show you. I will tell you now that some things will be hard to see and others a joy. I can't guarantee which you will choose to feel. That is entirely up to you. So...are you ready?"

She looked at her own image and then back at the physical form of...Didi. Mara emphatically uttered, "Yes, I am. Show me."


	12. Part 11

**Part 11**

Mara just stood in front of Didi waiting for a reply to her answer. Didi...the personification of Death. Not what she was expecting. She suspected someone or something looking quite more...darker. Despite her dark clothing, Death was very bright and lively.

Mara nudged, "All right, how do we start this?"

Didi...Death smiled. "Do you know how one begins a long journey?" Mara shook her head. Didi went to the mirror and faced it. Very closely. Her next move was one Mara would have never expected.

Didi stepped forward to literally go _through_ the mirror's surface to come out on the other side. Didi's physical self that had been standing next to Mara a few seconds before was now non-existent.

After Mara let out a surprising gasp, Didi turned back at her from inside the mirror and answered her own question. "With a first step."

"How...how did you do that?"

"If you want to find out, then try it yourself." She motioned with her hand and cheerily beckoned, "Come on in, the water's fine."

Mara hesitantly approached the mirror. She slowly lifted her leg to the surface and she was caught off guard when it did not stop. Her leg entered _into_ the mirror. She forced herself forward and Mary's whole body followed. There was no tingling sensation as she entered. It was as if the mirror was just another doorway. She came through to the other side and Didi stood there waiting.

"Well, now wasn't that fun?" she brightened.

Mara looked back at the mirror they just entered through and saw that she was herself again. She looked down at her body. Her black one-piece jumpsuit. Her blaster at her side. Her lightsaber. She grabbed a lock of her own hair. Her red-gold hair. Mary Jane Skyler was gone. She was Mara Jade again. She absently replied, "A blast. What in kriffing Hell was that?"

Didi chuckled. "I just love that curse word. And you, Mara, are inside my realm–the Sunless Lands. Basically, anything can happen here with an individual's imagination. Call it a transitional stage before I send someone off on their next journey. You can visit virtually any plane of existence in here."

"How many are there?"

"Oh my...well, how many choices do you think you made during your lifetime? Roughly."

"I don't know. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands."

"Take all of those decisions and imagine if you chose differently on each one. Each individual choice creates a new plane of existence. In theory, the amount of different planes are endless. I could show you most of them here but it would take a few lifetimes to see them all. I just wanted to show you some things in your own time-line"

Mara gestured to their new surroundings. "This is my time-line? There are others of mine?"

"Oh yes. You'd be surprised at how many choices you did make, Mara. For instance, I could show you one where you did manage to kill Luke on that desert planet–oh, I'm so terrible with the names of your planets. There's so many."

"Tatooine," Mara said blankly.

"That's it. Oh, there's another where you and Luke marry much earlier and you had a daughter before you had Ben."

"A daughter? I have a daughter?"

"Not you. The Mara in that alternate plane does. Think of it as a parallel universe."

Mara asked gently, "Do you know what I named her?"

Didi smiled but was hesitant. "Oh, why not? You won't remember all of this. Her name is Emeilia. Named after her grandmother."

"Grandmother? But, Luke's mother was named Padmé."

"Not Luke's mother."

"Mine?"

"Yep. That Mara knew her mother. In fact, a little too well. She had to live with her and Luke for a spell. Trust me, that Luke had his hands full with three Jade women in one household."

"Oh...wow. This is all too much."

"I know. I shouldn't have told you. I'm sorry. But, now...do you recognize where you are?"

Mara looked around and saw a desk and several books on shelves. She spotted something on the desk. A holographic picture of herself, an eight-year-old Ben, and her husband. "Oh my stars, this is our study room." She looked back at Didi. "We're in our apartment on Coruscant."

"Voila," Didi announced as she spread her arms out as if presenting the room as a gift. She then added with a smirk, "And they say you can never go back home."

"Is...is _he_ here?"

Didi put her arms down and said seriously, "Now, Mara, don't get all–"

It was too late. The sound of the front door slid open and Mara already knew who would be coming through it even before she took off running into the hallway.

"...excited," Didi finished. She said softly to herself, "Wait. Stop Mara. Come back. Eh, what's the use?" She then followed Mara into the hallway.

When Mara reached the main area, her anticipation was correct and there standing near the kitchen reading a piece of flimsi was Luke Skywalker.

"Luke!" Mara cried out, and she ran to him. Luke put down the flimsi on the counter and turned in her direction. They came forward toward each other. Mara could already feel the pure joy it would be to have him in her arms again. They closed the gap between them and she raised her arms to him.

As they came close to touching–he passed through her as if she were a ghost.

Mara had not expected to _not_ touch him and her balance was thrown off and she tripped to land on the Seaaria carpet. Embarrassment notwithstanding, she managed to pull herself up with her arms but she still stayed on the floor. She looked over at a spot on the carpet that was pinkish-red. That was where Ben had spilled a glass of Juri juice years ago and they never had the time to clean it properly or replace it. _Too many battles._

Didi came up to her and stood almost in judgement. "I was going to tell you that you can't touch him. For all intents and purposes, you don't exist on this plane."

Mara picked herself up and snapped, "You could have told me."

Didi replied as sternly, "You could have given me enough time to tell you. And not to make light of the situation, missy, but I am the very last being you want to sport an attitude with."

"Are you always this threatening, or is it just me?"

Didi answered lightening quick, "No, it's you. Your defenses are in place. Always the same. You put up your defenses when you don't need to and you let them down when it's required."

"Can you blame me? Do you know what kind of torture it is for me to finally see my husband and not touch him? I can't even feel him in the Force."

"There's no Force in my realm. And you're a couple million light years away to feel him."

"Can this get any worse?"

"You can see what Luke is doing in your bedroom."

Mara crinkled her forehead at her for a moment before she headed to the master bedroom. She noted that even in the act of walking that this was her body walking, not Mary Jane's.

She entered the bedroom and a flood of memories poured in. Didi followed but kept to standing by the open door. Mara edged closer to Luke.

He was sitting on the end of their bed and his blank stare was focused on the opposing wall. Mara came around to kneel before him in what looked like to her as an awkward worship motion to her Almighty Luke. She called out to Didi, "I take it he can't hear us either."

"Despite of him being in front of you, you are in two separate worlds."

Mara kept staring at him with a regretful longing. "As long as I can see him, it doesn't matter." She kept on staring. She did not merely look. She studied. She memorized. Who knew when she would be able to see him again? She quietly remarked, "I almost forgot how blue his eyes are. And there's that scar on his cheek courtesy of Shimrra's amphistaff."

She paused as she felt that pressure in her eyes once again. This time she controlled them back.

She had to speak to him. "Luke...I know you cannot hear me. I still wanted to say this for the both of us. I am so sorry. I'm sorry I had to leave you. Once again, my anger and arrogance brought out the worst of me. The worst of the Emperor's Hand. This time, I paid the price. You and Ben paid a higher price." She took a breath and uttered, "If I could do anything different..." she trailed off, not ready to finish that sentence yet.

Suddenly, it was Luke who spoke gently next. At first, she thought somehow he could hear her. Once he spoke, she knew it was not she whom he addressed specifically. It was another Mara Jade. The one who was not living.

"Mara. Why didn't you tell me? What hadn't you awoke me that night? We agreed we would face Jacen together, as one. Remember Nirauan? Stronger together than each separate? Didn't you realize...you are never going to be the Emperor's Hand again. You are now and always will ever be...a _Skywalker_." He paused at his own silence and began again. "But, I know you. I know how you are. I know what you were thinking. You were thinking like an assassin, not a mother or a wife." He took a breath himself. "Despite your choices that led you to your fate, I will _never_ be mad at you."

And there it was. She needed this. She needed to hear this from him. This was closure. She knew her mistakes as well as Luke had known them. The difference now was that she could forgive herself for them. Just as he had.

He suddenly stood and went to their dresser. A holograph frame showed an image of the two of them on their wedding day. Luke gently took the frame in hand and turned it backwards. From out of the backing, he pulled out a small folded piece of flimsi hidden underneath. He took the flimsi with his right hand while placing the frame back with his left.

He then used both hands to unfold the flimsi.

Mara stood behind him to see what it was. After just a few opened folds, she immediately recognized her own handwriting.

_Gone hunting. Don't be mad at me, farmboy._

This was the first time she had seen it since she wrote it. She winced at how cold the note had been. Why hadn't she seen it then? Why had she not woke Luke up? Why had she not told him? What was she afraid of?

The note had been crumpled at one time. More likely a few seconds after his first reading of it. She could never imagine his feeling after he realized these would be her last words to him. She noticed it had been handled with extreme care since...since. It had been protected by a laminate gel. If she knew how sentimental Luke was, she would know he would have gone the extra meter and added a strong laminate that would prevent the piece from burning.

She heard him mutter as he caressed the flimsi, "I will never be mad at you, Mara. All that I ask of you is to return to the Force. Like Ben did." He started to grimace and it pained her to see it again. "Kenobi, not our son."

She rolled her eyes. "I _knew_ who you meant, farmboy."

He went on to whisper, "To hear your voice again...even if it's one of our infamous discussions...," he trailed off.

She watched him wallow in his pain. She decided she had enough.

"Didi, why did you bring me here?"

She answered from behind her, "Closure."

"This may be the last time I see him, isn't it?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that."

Mara turned away from Luke to face Didi. To face Death, literally. "Why? What do you know that you're not telling me?"

Didi smirked and stated, "Many choices. Different results."

"Did I mention how I just love that cryptic manner of yours?"

"And I just looove sarcasm. Ready to move on?" Didi watched her look back at Luke and said, "I know you would like nothing more than to stay here with him. And why not; he's quite the catch."

"That he is. But, I know it would be empty. I'd much rather him see me, touch me, and speak to me."

"There is a way, Mara. First I need to show you something else."

"Where are we going now?"

"Back to the scene of the crime."

Before Mara could reply, the entire scene changed. The apartment with Luke in it dissolved downward as if washed away by a hard rain. Underneath the facade of the apartment and into another plane of existence was...rock.

Or rather a rocky surface. Mara looked around and saw that they were now inside a dimly lit cave. At one end there was a passage that had been recently blocked by rocky debris. And the smell.

The smell.

Mara would forever remember that acidic scent of moist shale. It was the very last thing her olfactory senses would detect. She turned quickly to the opposite side where the light source had been coming from the only entrance. And she saw.

_Scene of the crime, indeed._

Laying not four meters away in an almost peaceful state...was herself. Dead. She edged closer seeing the surreal image of herself in Death's shroud. Or Didi's? There was someone bent over her and holding her hand. Even in the dimly lit cave she could make out the red-blonde hair.

"Ben?" she shrieked. "How did you get here so fast?"

"He didn't, Mara," Didi said from behind her. "He was already in the area."

"No. He was on Coruscant. The transponder in his vibroblade said he was still on Coruscant."

"The _blade_ was there," Didi calmly answered. "Ben had forgotten it."

Mara silently cursed. "I should have hidden it in his lightsaber. What is he doing here anyway?"

"He came for you. Either to stop you or help you. See, there's the perfect example. It's not just our choices that create each different scenario. Sometimes it's the little things that happen or not happen that can make a small event into a catastrophic one. Imagine if Ben had _not_ forgotten the blade. You would have known he was in the area. Then you would have been forced to make a choice. Keep on hunting, or protect Ben."

"That would not have been a hard one. If I had gone off to protect him instead of...we wouldn't be standing here, would be?"

"Yes and no. No, we are standing here right now in this scenario. And yes, there is another realm where you do go off and protect him."

"And I live."

"You didn't in this one. See, this is the point when I waited for you. You didn't show. You didn't meld like most of your kind. At first I thought it had to do with your son protecting you. Then I figured it was you. You made your choice and the Universe stepped in to take over and plopped you into poor Mary Jane on Earth."

"Wait a moment," Mara cried. "This was, what, a few hours after I died? When we were with Luke before, that had to have been a few weeks after. Luke couldn't have gotten that note laminated in that short time. That would have to be ordered. How did we jump from the future to the past?"

Didi sighed. "You think too linear, Mara. Just like all humans. Time isn't flat on a ruler with a definite beginning and end. Think of time as an ever revolving cycle." She took her forefinger in mid-air as if she were about to draw on a blackboard. "It cycles around, overlaps at one point, comes around on the other side, and repeats. Over and over." In the air, she drew a bright yellow symbol that looked like a sideways figure eight. _Infinity_. She continued to explain as the symbol dissolved. "Past, present, future; three terms that all define Time as one."

Mara got the point and she watched as her son lovingly hold her dead hand as if to caress her back to life. Her mind wandered. "When you say 'our kind', I assume you mean Jedi. What makes us so different from others you...greet at the end?"

Didi found a rock outcropping that she climbed up on and sat. She twirled her umbrella in the air. "Your Force. Haven't you ever wondered why your galaxy is blessed with it and Earth is not?"

"I never really thought about it in scientific terms. Is there a physical reason how the Force exists?"

"Isn't there always one? It's simple if you think about it. How many suns does Earth have?"

"Well...one."

"And how many does your galaxy have?"

"Oh, wow, countless. Too many to mention. Some systems have more than one sun."

"Exactly. The Earth's sun is in the center of its solar system, so it has more control over gravity. Whereas your galaxy has too many suns in several solar systems that cannot be in the center. Your galaxy was given a special manner to control its gravity. The unique solution was an energy field that–"

"–binds us and penetrates us and is present in all living things," Mara finished.

"Correctamundo! And by happenstance, there evolved a select few of living beings who could tap into that energy and use its power."

"Preferably, for good."

"Eh, that's a misconception. Another human devised concept. Good and evil? Two sides of the same coin. If a Dark user, as you call them, uses the Force, does that mean a Light side user uses a different Force? They're both tapping into the same energy field. The question becomes what their motive is, not their means of carrying it out."

"Ironically, that was what Jacen was trying to get across after he came back from the Vong all those years."

"Speaking of which, that reminds me of what I wanted to show you."

"What?"

"Hold your horses. It's coming. In five, four, three, two, one...Taa Daaa!"

Immediately after she said this, whom should enter the cave but Jacen Solo himself.

Mara flashed her green eyes to burn at him and she snapped, "What is _he_ doing back here?"

Jacen came from behind Ben and her son dropped her dead hand to stand up and greet him. Their mouths moved with words but there was no sound produced.

Mara noted, "I can't hear them."

Didi replied, "Is there a need to?"

After a few moments of no action, Mara was reaching frustration. "I can't _hear_ them," she exclaimed.

"Wait for it," Didi suggested calmly.

The next moment Jacen raised his hand to Ben in a gesture of affection for losing his mother. She noticed her son's body language. It was way too calm. How could he be calm. _Son, my murderer is standing in front of you!_

Ben doesn't know. Or Jacen isn't _allowing_ him to know.

She edged closer to the Sith-wanna-be and noticed right off that he cleaned up well. The cuts and bruises she handed him were still there, but hidden well. In this dim light, Ben would not have noticed.

She couldn't help but speak to her son. "How can you not see through him, Ben? How can you not tell he was directly involved? He is pretending. You know this. We discussed this together." Yet, to Ben's credit, he denied Jacen's hand. Maybe he suspects. And not showing that he does. Never reveal to your enemy how much you know about them and play along until the time is right to not play along. _That's my boy_, she proudly acknowledged. _A chip off the old Jade._

She watched Jacen carefully and paid attention to his words. She had, at one time, the skill of lip reading. Since she excelled in the Force over the years, that skill started to fade. Luckily, Jacen said his next phrase with slow emphasis.

_We will find who did this to your mother._

She felt her blood drain right there.

The next words were obviously his instructions to Ben to get back to a ship and prepare to leave. Apparently, Jacen told him he would take care of the body. After Ben turned back to steal one last look at his dead mother, he walked off to the entrance. Once he was out of sight, she saw a slight smirk on Jacen as he looked down at her body.

At that point, Mara Jade's anger raised to a frenzy.

"You monster! You are no longer a Solo, Jacen! You are not going to be Sith!" She yelled at him not caring if he couldn't hear her. She raised her fists and swung at his cheek but they passed right through the image. "Always two there are, Palpatine kept telling me. Only two. Who's going to be your second? You are not going to have my Ben! Who, Jacen? Lumiya? Alema Rar? Both of them are broken down already. How long will they last? And _Tarkin's Ghost_, why hadn't I screamed this to you while we were fighting? Damn you to kriffing Hell, you Sith-in-training!"

Didi called from her rocky perch, "You done yet? I wanted to tell you a few things if you are. First, he has a new name now. Something...Caedus. There's something else in front of it that I can't remember. Probably a title."

Mara closed her eyes and supplied with, "Darth. It's a Sith title." She opened her eyes and repeated, "Darth Caedus? That's not exactly going to strike fear into people's hearts, Jacen. Though, you've already pulled a few hearts out with your act here. Including mine."

"Done now?"

"What, Didi?"

"That Lumiya you mentioned. She's dead too."

Mara quickly turned away from Jacen as he was beginning to pick up her body. She looked at Didi, shocked. "How did she die?"

"Beheaded by your husband. Right after she claimed to be your murderer.

"_No_. Luke, _no_. Why would he do that?"

Didi merely glanced at the body that Jacen slung over his shoulder. She was being carried by her own murderer. Was her husband also a murderer through revenge?

"No, Luke. You can't go down that path again. Not even for the loss of me." The burden was too much for her to bear and she fell to her knees and sobbed. "Oh, sithspawn, what have I done?"

Didi jumped off her rock and went over to Mara. "You got it out of your system? I needed you to see this, Mara. It tells you that your world needs you. There is but one obstacle."

Mara looked up from her tear-stained face and cried out, "What obstacle could be worse than death?"

"See, there you go. I am _not_ your enemy, Mara. I am your dearest friend. I love you as I love all living beings. It doesn't matter if they're evil or good. In the end, Lumiya had the same thing that you got. A lifetime.

"Now, as I was saying, there is a way over this obstacle. You cannot have your physical self back in this time line, but you live in a galaxy where that doesn't matter. You don't realize how lucky you are."

Mara sniffed away and wiped excess tears and asked, "What is the obstacle?"

"Smart gal like you haven't figured it out, yet? Well, it just so happens that is our next stop."

In the time of a blink, the scene immediately changed as if it were a light switch. And the switch turned out all the lights. They were plunged into total darkness. Mara could not see anything in front of her.

"Uh...Didi...er, Death?"

"Hey, only my siblings can call me that. God knows they call me other things behind my back." Didi's voice called out from the black somewhere near.

"Do they call you in the middle of total darkness?"

"Sometimes. I assume you would like some light."

"If it's not too much trouble."

"Ok, one spot of light to go, please."

Instantly, a spotlight with no apparent source shown only on the two of them. Outside of the light the blackness stayed. Mara looked at Didi and she looked even more pale against the black background.

Didi chimed, "Anyone for a _Bud_-Lite, now?"

"A what?"

"Never mind. Earth joke."

"Where are we?"

"Uh...the Sunless Lands...my realm. I thought I told you."

"But, we were in our apartment on Coruscant and then Kavan, and now...here."

"My dear, they are all the same place. We never _left_ the Sunless Lands. We've only visited projections of those places." She spread her arms out while she announced, "This is what my place looks like in its natural form." She put her arms down and looked around and said, "You know, I really should get a maid in here once in a while."

"What did you want to show me in here?"

"Well, I was hoping to find her."

"Her?"

"Yeah, see this is what people see in between Life and their path to their journey afterward. When they aren't quite dead, but hovering above it. They see nothing. Limbo. Or as a future Captain in another 'Verse will so eloquently put it, they're at the corner of No and Where."

"Limbo, huh? Like say people in a coma?"

"There's the Mara I know and love! Bingo. Now, we just have to find her." Didi put her hands above her brow as if to shade a non-existent sun from her eyes. Then she started singing.

"Oh, where, oh where has our Mary Jane gone? Oh, where oh where can she be?"

Mara chuckled at Didi's way of breaking her tension and she herself looked around. In the black. She had no clue as to how she could find someone in this. Though many worlds had a variation of the old proverb that even the faintest light will shine brightly in darkness. At a quarter of a turn, Mara saw it. A faint light.

"Would that be her?"

"Well, hogtie my hooters, Mara. You found her. I knew you of all people could do it."

As they stepped forward the light came nearer. Mara could not feel anything under her feet as she stepped. It was like walking on a very dense cloud.

She remarked with amusement, "People tell you that when you die you will see a light that you must follow. I am doing that now, literally."

"With reflection like that, you will do well, Mara."

"In life? A little too late for that."

"No. In the state of being, there is no Life or Death. There just..._is_." corrected Didi.

Mara could think of no reply as they came up to the spotlight of another being.

Mary Jane Skyler sat with her knees folded against her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. She kept to a blank stare ahead of her in an aimless focus. She did not acknowledge the two of them approaching her. Her long black hair fell against her back in scraggly clumps. The only action her body performed was the act of blinking.

"My stars," Mara cried. "Has she been like this since I woke up?"

"Try an Earth year ago."

"Why is she like this?"

"Simple. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."

Mara looked at Didi with confusion. "Where?"

"Oh, sorry, love...another Earth joke."

"Don't you know any jokes from other planets? Like say Hoth. We had plenty of jokes for that place."

"Hmm...why did the Wampa cross the road?"

Mara answered lightening quick, "If it's a one-armed Wampa, it would be to get revenge on my husband."

Didi laughed. "See, who needs jokes from me when I have you?" She reached over and lightly pinched Mara's cheek.

Mara squirmed away from Didi's...Death's touch and stated, "Can we get to the problem at hand, please?"

"Yes, sir! The problem at hand is before you. Mary is stuck here by her own will. I can't get her to leave. I've tried entering her mind, and as you can see, there is nothing in it right now. What we need is some trigger for her to open up."

Mara waved a hand in front of Mary's eyes.

"Already tried that," Didi supplied. "I've run out of ideas. And apparently, the Grand Universe figured you would have the answer by placing your free spirit inside her mind."

"Well, Steve Markham was right about one thing. She's hiding from herself. At least, he managed to wake her a bit. So, the Universe put me in Mary to help her out of her trance? How do I go about doing that?"

"By doing what you do best. In so doing, when Mary frees herself, you will be given a second chance to choose again."

"Meaning I can go back to my galaxy to be one with the Force if I can wake her up?"

"Not just wake her. For all we know, she could wake up and not remember who she is or what happened to her. She could start talking to you through her mind. And she could never wake up at all."

"And if that happens, I get to live out my second life as Mary. What a reward for a good deed after I die."

Didi voiced her assurance in a soothing tone. "You have already performed good deeds, Mara. Don't see this as a reward. Look at this as an opportunity. If there is one lesson I learned from humans, it's their enormous desire to be needed. And you are very needed, Mara. In two galaxies. Now, who in history can say that?"

"How would I even start?"

"Your instincts are pretty stable. Just think about it."

"You sound like you're leaving."

"Well, I do have a job, Mara. I showed you what I needed for you to see and explained what you wanted. And, more importantly, I came to show you that you will never be alone. You _will_ be with your Luke and your Ben again."

"Will I ever see you again?"

"Oh, someday. Remember, I am everywhere."

"And nowhere."

"Boy, you learn quick. Mara Jade, it's been a slice."

"Thank you, Didi."

"The pleasure has been all mine. I don't know if you realize this or not, but you have led four different phases in your life. Emperor's Hand. Smuggler. Jedi. Wife and mother should count as one. That's more lives than most people live in a quarter of a lifetime. There is a fifth waiting for you."

Mara smirked and replied, "Just so it's a fifth of that Jack Daniels."

"There's that quick wit that even I can't keep up with. Toodles, Mara." Didi backed away from the light and just about disappeared into the blackness.

Mara exclaimed a sudden thought. "How am I getting back?"

Didi's voice echoed through the dark, "You're already there, Mara. But, mind your landing."

"My– " In a flash, Mara was no longer in darkness. Light emitted from everywhere at once. She felt as if she were in the air, wind blowing through her hair. With a sudden thud, she came in contact with hard ground. The impact made her shriek with pain in her side as she now lay in a patch of grass. Once she caught her breath, she finished her sentence. "–landing. Ouch."

"Mara," a voice called to her.

"Didi?"

"Didi?" a sweetened voice questioned. "Oh no, you're not someone _else_ now, are you?"

Mara opened her eyes to the Alabama sun. Mary's brown eyes. She sat up with Mary's back with Mary's arms. She looked over at the woman nearby. "Emma. No, I'm still Mara. With Mary Jane somewhere underneath."

"Who is Didi?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Let's just say she's someone I don't want to see anytime soon, but will be glad she's my friend when I do."

Emma stared at her for a moment before remarking, "Are you always this cryptic?"

Mara began the task of lifting herself up. She did a double take as she saw Mary's black hair tangled on her Grateful Dead shirt. She replied to Emma, "Trust me, Emma, I'm not as cryptic as some." She stood and saw that she was standing in direct line of the swing that she had been sitting in before Didi made her entrance. The swing was still in the back and forth motion from its momentum. "What happened?"

Emma smiled sweetly. Mara did miss that smile. "Well, hon, it looks like you were trying to recapture your youth and jumped out of the swing like a ten-year-old. I just went to do some errands and one of them was the Post Office and I forgot my letters. I had to turn around and come back for them. I passed Luke and Ben in that rust bucket of his."

"Huh? Luke and Ben? Oh..._them_. Wait, they just left? How long was I out here?"

"I'd say not too long. The swing is still moving."

Mara looked impressed. "Nice deduction, Emma."

"Since you are traveling down Childhood Lane, how about some hot chocolate?"

Mara grimaced. Luke's favorite drink. She considered and thought of another drink.

"How about a Dr. Pepper? I hear they're refreshing. And cold."

"Yeah, can't say I blame you. A little too hot for hot chocolate. C'mon inside, I'll fix you up."

The both of them walked to the sliding doors of the patio and inside the house to the kitchen. Mara sat down at the bar while Emma opened up the refrigerator.

Emma looked inside. "Hmm...did you have a Dr. Pepper earlier? No, you wouldn't have had time. Must have been Ben who took one. It couldn't have been Luke."

Mara thought innocently of the Dr. Pepper consumed by Didi. She went with Emma's assumption. "Luke doesn't like Dr. Pepper?"

"Oh no. Zero alcohol." She opened one for Mara and then one for herself. She asked Mara as she sipped, "So, how was Dr. Markham?"

"Let's just say this Dr. I'm drinking now is more enlightening."

Emma laughed. "I can't say that I'm surprised. I was always wondering about that strange man."

"Wonder no more."

"He seemed to be on the other side of stable."

Something suddenly clicked in Mara's memory.

_Your instincts are pretty stable._

Stable. Upon sudden realization, Mara absently cried out, "Didi, you sneaky girl!"

"Ok, Mara, that's the second time you mentioned Didi. Were we pretty, uh, straight as an arrow in your other world?"

Mara almost spilled her drink over. "Oh my stars, no, Emma. No, Didi was just in a dream I had while I was on the swing."

"Must not have been a long dream."

"Oh, it felt longer than it seemed. She was trying to tell me something in a hint."

"What kind of hint?"

Mara paused and shifted gears by asking Emma, "Was there an official police report on Mary Jane's accident?"

Taken back a bit by the sudden question, she had to think to answer, "Yes, there was. It was only a formality. It was open and shut. The horse was the only evidence they needed."

"Evidence can lie, Emma."

Emma set down her drink and asked seriously, "What are you saying, Mara?"

"I believe something else happened in that stable. I think someone else was there with Mary before Deke found her."

Emma started to become frantic. "Well, who would that have been?"

"I don't know."

"Who would have hit her besides the horse? No one else was near her."

"How do you know?"

"I don't know. The police didn't find anything."

"How deep did they look?"

"They didn't have to look deep. The answer was right there."

"Sometimes things aren't as clear as they seem."

"Mara, what is making you say these things?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, Dr. Markham did reach to Mary for a few moments. I was witness in her own mind. She was yelling for someone to not touch her."

"Maybe she was talking to the horse?" After Mara gave her a What-Are-You-Thinking look, Emma said, "Well, I don't know. How are you going to prove all this?"

Mara stated with her old confidence returning like an old friend, "By doing what I do best. Investigate."

THE END OF CHAPTER ONE OF TWO.

Mara Jade will return as Mary in THE CASE OF MARY JANE SKYLER.

COMING SOON!


End file.
